A SOUND APPROACH

Using Phonemic Awareness to Teach Reading and Spelling

Laura A. Robbins and Heather A. KennyLaura A. Robbins and Heather A. KennyIllustrated by Ken StampnickIllustrated by Ken Stampnick

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A SOUND APPROACH

A SOUND APPROACHUsing Phonemic Awareness to Teach Reading and Spelling

Laura A. Robbins and Heather A. Kenny Illustrated by Ken Stampnick

© 2007 by Laura A. Robbins and Heather A. Kenny Pages of this electronic publication designated as reproducible may be reproduced under licence from Access Copyright. All other pages may only be reproduced with the express written permission of Portage & Main Press, or as permitted by law. Your purchase allows you to do the following:

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Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

Chapter 1: Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, and Encoding 9

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding 19

Chapter 3: Activities for Large Groups, Small Groups, or Pairs 35 Part 1: Ten Phonemic Awareness Activities 35 Part 2: Six Decoding and Encoding Activites 44 Reproducible Masters for the Activities 49

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans for Small Groups or Individuals 83 Part 1: Seven Lessons for Teaching the Simple Sounds 88 Part 2: Four Lessons for Teaching Consonant Digraphs 98 Part 3: Six Lessons for Teaching Vowel Digraphs 101 Reproducible Masters for the Lesson Plans 107

Appendixes Story Starters and Riddles 190 Action Pages 203 Visual Strips 229 Pictures Pages and Words-and-Pictures Pages 231

Bibliography 257

For

Paul and Susan (L.R.)

Lauren, Claire, and especially Paul (H.K.)

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the many students who have taught us about learning to read and spell, and the many dedicated educators, especially Penny Szpakowski, Wanda Bunt, Jane Mcgarvey, and

Wilma Greenhalgh, who have so enthusiastically adopted the approach we present in this book and generously provided us with their feedback. We are particularly grateful to Linda DeGroot, who developed the tic-tac-toe word game that has become a favorite among our students.

Sincere thanks also go to Dr. Robert Allshouse and Dr. Patricia Pollifrone of Gannon University, and University of Toledo faculty members Dr. Eileen Carr and Dr. Jenny Denyer for providing professional guidance and much-needed personal support.

As always, we are most grateful for the love and support of our families and friends. Love and thanks go to: Paul and Susan Robbins, Paul, Lauren and Claire Kenny, Claire McCarthur, Palm Roberts, Robert and Marcia Allshouse, Ruth Kenny, Carol and Dan Farr, Diane Pezzini, Adele Roberts and Evan Guenkel, Lisa, Todd and Meghan Allshouse, Jo Ann, Mike, Jack and Luke Stanley, Margaret Lannon, Margaret Standen, Sharon McCaw, Dee Goodings, Ray and Tyler Wiese, and Sophie Taylor.

Aa Bb Cc DdEe Ff Gg HhIi Jj Kk LlMm Nn Oo PpQ Rr Ss TtUu Vv WwXx Yy Zz

Introduction

Arianna* sighed and gazed at her friends before turning her attention back to her teacher. The other children were happily engaged in a game of make-believe at the classroom house-center, which involved

many props and a great deal of giggling. But Arianna sat, small and silent, at a table at one end of the classroom staring at the simple three-letter word before her. She knew what was expected of her, as this was by no means the fi rst such session. Laura, who was her kindergarten teacher at the time, pointed to the word bat, printed in perfect ball-and-stick block letters, and said encouragingly, “Arianna, I want you to say each sound, then read the word.” Arianna dutifully responded “/b/ - /a/ - /t/” as Laura pointed to each letter in turn. But, when Laura asked hopefully, “Now what word does that spell?” Arianna responded with her usual blank stare.**

After several more attempts, Laura tried a new tactic. “Okay, Arianna, look at the letters while I say the sounds: /b/ - /a/ - /t/. What does that spell? /b/ - /a/ - /t/.” More blank stares. Undaunted, Laura switched gears yet again. “Arianna, don’t look at the letter. Just look at me. Watch my mouth. What word am I saying? /b/ - /a/ - /t/. /B/ /aaaaaaaaaaaa/ /t/. Baaaaaaaaaaaat. What word am I saying?” Poor Arianna knew that she would not be able to play make-believe at the house-center until she responded correctly. “Box? Book?” she asked desperately, searching her teacher’s eyes, as if to read the answer there.

The session ended, as did all the previous ones, when Laura fi nally took pity on Arianna for having sat so long and so patiently. “That’s the word bat, Arianna. Let’s read the word together: baaaaat.” And with that, Arianna bounded off to the house-center, leaving Laura shaking her head in consternation. What puzzled her was that Arianna knew all 26 letters of the alphabet and the sounds most commonly represented by those letters. Why then, could she not sound out words?

*Some students' names have been changed.** In this volume, phonemes are represented by common spelling patterns and are enclosed in slash marks.

2 A Sound Approach

That event took place almost a decade and a half ago. At that time, Laura was an experienced primary teacher and I had just recently graduated with my teaching degree. The high-needs urban elementary school where we taught was overcrowded and, while we each had our own kindergarten classes, we shared the same classroom. We believed then, as we do now, that the most important gift we could give our students was a strong foundation of literacy skills, and the majority of our efforts were directed at laying that foundation. Alongside many constructivist methods, we taught our students “old-school phonics.” We taught them to identify the shapes and sounds of letters and then encouraged them to “sound out” unfamiliar words as needed. Armed with the ability to identify by sight a handful of frequently used words, most of our students were off to a good start, enthusiastically decoding simple texts. But we were puzzled and intrigued by students who, like Arianna, knew the names and sounds of the letters but could not sound out words.

Our initial solution was to give students like Arianna more instruction in phonics. Our rationale was simple: if they could not do it, then they must need more practice. We gave them practice in small groups with manipulatives; we gave them pen-to-paper activities; we coached them individually. Ironically, the students in our classes who could do the phonics activities were the ones who did not seem to need the practice, whereas the students who seemed to need the practice could not master the activities. No matter how many phonics activities we threw at them, students like Arianna simply could not sound out words. By the end of that year, we had given up on phonics instruction entirely for them and had adopted a strictly wholistic approach to reading. In our heart of hearts, however, we knew that we had failed them.

The following year, Arianna had moved on, but some of our new students were experiencing the same diffi culties. We were determined to fi nd a way to reach these students. We started by surveying the existing literature relating to reading instruction and came across a surprising number of studies that linked phonemic awareness to reading ability. At that time, few of our colleagues could not even pronounce the term, let alone defi ne it. We decided that, if phonemic awareness was so important to reading acquisition, then we would learn enough about it to be able to teach our students.

Since that time, we have learned that decoding, or a child’s ability to sound out words, is dependent on two factors. First, the child must have an understanding of how the alphabet works as a code for speech sounds. Arianna already knew that the letter b represented the sound /b/, the letter a represented the sound /a/, and so on. What was missing was the second piece of the puzzle: the child’s phonemic awareness, that is, the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds, or phonemes, that comprise

3

spoken words. Arianna’s story is a cautionary tale. Had we understood the concept phonemic awareness and its signifi cance to the acquisition of literacy skills, we would have provided Arianna with instruction targeted to develop her phonemic awareness and consequently her decoding skills. Arianna’s problem was not that she could not learn through phonics but, rather, that her underdeveloped phonemic awareness prevented her from being able to access phonics as an effective reading strategy.

For the next decade, we continued to read and investigate phonemic awareness through the academic literature and through our own teaching practice. We worked collaboratively to develop and refi ne a phonemically driven approach to reading and spelling for both beginning and struggling readers. We began conducting professional-development seminars, fi rst for teachers at local school boards, then at reading conferences across North America. Laura completed her master of education degree, specializing in literacy, and in her master’s thesis she examined the phonemic awareness skills of kindergarten students. She took a position as a special-education teacher, conducting school-based action research that examined the effects of phonemic awareness instruction on the reading skills of struggling readers in grades one to eight. She is currently a literacy coach and resource teacher in Burlington, Ontario.

I resigned from my elementary-school teaching position and began working privately as an educational consultant, specializing in phonemic intervention and remediation. The students I tutored were identifi ed with, or considered to be at-risk for, reading and/or spelling disabilities. I completed my master of education degree, specializing in literacy, and the focus of my master’s thesis was on the intersection of professional development and teachers’ knowledge of phonemic awareness. I am currently a full-time doctoral student and have taught literacy courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Toledo.

This book is the result of our ongoing investigations. Since that time almost 15 years ago when we taught Arianna, we have developed and refi ned a phonemically driven approach to reading and spelling instruction. We have taught hundreds of beginning and struggling readers, aged fi ve to 14 in large groups, in small groups, and individually, and we have had the kind of success that years ago we never would have dreamed possible. We have taught and learned from beginning readers; young students identifi ed with reading and spelling problems, and other learning disabilities; and older students who, despite having undergone years of remedial instruction, still struggled with reading. With very few exceptions, our students have experienced great success. Laura now claims that, fi nally, after 30 years in the profession, she knows how to teach reading. Our goal in writing this book is to share what we have learned from other researchers and, just as important, what we have

Introduction

4 A Sound Approach

learned from our own students. We know that, with the right approach, teaching children to decode and encode can be relatively simple, fun, and enormously rewarding for both students and teachers.

Throughout this book, we usually refer to reading in terms of decoding. But this is not to suggest that we consider the two words (reading and decoding) to be synonymous. Nothing could be further from the truth. Decoding refers to the process by which students are able to look at the arbitrary visual symbols that we call letters and translate them into spoken words. Colloquially, this process is referred to as sounding out. Reading, on the other hand, is an infi nitely more complex cognitive process that carries implications far beyond the mere recitation of words on a page.

In order for students to be highly skilled as readers, they must be able to understand, interpret, and critically examine the message inherent in a text. However, like any other complex skill, reading can be broken down into requisite sub-skills. Let us examine reading from a top-down perspective. Please note that this discussion is not intended to be comprehensive or refl ective of the considerable complexities of the overall reading process. Rather, it is intended to enable us to deconstruct and examine discrete elements of the process.

Let us begin by asking ourselves the following question: if our students are to become highly skilled readers, what knowledge and skills must they acquire? They must be able to (a) understand what they read and (b) apply critical and analytical thinking skills to texts. Skilled reading can therefore be broken down as shown in fi gure I.1.

Let us now turn our attention to the knowledge and skills that are required for students to be able to comprehend what they read. Reading comprehension implies three elements. First, students must be able to decode text fl uently. Second, they must have well-developed background knowledge to be able to connect with the text as well as suffi cient knowledge of the vocabulary that they will encounter. And, third, they must have well-developed comprehension skills. These elements are represented in fi gure I.2.

Reading Comprehension Critical and Analytical Thinking Skills

SKILLED READING

Figure I.1: Skilled Reading

5

Now, let’s examine the term fl uency in decoding more closely. What are the knowledge and skills that students need to acquire in order to decode text fl uently? As shown in fi gure I.3 (page 6), students need (a) a thorough knowledge of the alphabetic code and (b) well-developed phonemic awareness skills.

The model identifi ed in fi gures I.1, I.2, and I.3 is highly simplistic and thus cannot possibly do justice to the complexity of the reading process. It does, however, demonstrate the importance of decoding skills to a child’s acquisition of skilled reading. This is a top-down model, but if we are to teach our students the sub-skills necessary to be skilled readers, we need to approach reading instruction from the bottom up, for, if children lack phonemic awareness and alphabetic coding skills, they are necessarily unable to decode. If children are unable to decode, their comprehension skills are adversely affected; and, without the ability to comprehend what they read, students have no hope of becoming highly skilled readers.

We do not claim that this book represents a comprehensive reading program. We recognize that any good reading program incorporates effective instruction in all the elements discussed so far (critical and analytical thinking skills, activating background knowledge, vocabulary development, comprehension skills, fl uency, decoding), as well as guided practice that teaches students to integrate them. Rather, in this book, we focus on decoding (reading) and its reciprocal skill, encoding (spelling). Our goal is to help you, the teacher, develop the knowledge and skills needed to effectively assess and teach phonemic awareness and alphabetic coding skills, thus enabling your students, in turn, to become skilled decoders and encoders.

In chapter 1, we investigate phonemic awareness and its link to reading and spelling (decoding and encoding). In chapter 2, we explore the relationship between phonemic awareness and the related terms phonological awareness, phonics, and alphabetic coding. In chapter 3, we introduce a variety of simple, classroom-developed activities that require few materials and minimal preparation. These activities will help your students master the phonemic skills of blending and segmenting, and will reinforce their

Introduction

Fluency in Decoding

READING COMPREHENSION

Comprehension SkillsBackground and Vocabulary Knowledge

Figure I.2: Reading Comprehension

6 A Sound Approach

decoding and encoding skills in a manner that is fun and success-based. In chapter 4, we demonstrate in a series of lesson plans how to apply blending and segmenting to reading and spelling. The lesson plans follow a systematic, logically sequenced approach that links phonemic awareness to phonics and teaches beginning readers and struggling readers, alike, the fundamentals of decoding and encoding.

Chapters 3 and 4 and the appendix provide you with a host of resources and reproducible materials that will enable you to begin incorporating phonemic awareness and alphabetic coding instruction into your literacy program without delay. These materials include reproducible assessments, sound cards, word cards, and short-vowel cue cards, as well as action pages, pictures pages, words-and-pictures pages, and story starters and riddles.

Throughout chapters 3 and 4 we include sidebars, all entitled Research to Practise, which recount some of our classroom experiences as well as our interactions with other educators in the context of our professional-development workshops. These items are intended to respond to common questions and concerns, to give you a “feel” for this approach to reading and spelling instruction, and to generally help you to learn from our mistakes. We hope you fi nd these sidebars both entertaining and enlightening.

If you are relatively new to teaching, or if you are new to teaching a phonemically driven approach to reading and spelling, you may wish to read the book from cover to cover. The same holds true if you are interested in an in-depth examination of the topics phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, phonics, alphabetic coding, decoding, and encoding. If, however, you are familiar with the rationale for this approach, you may simply wish to fl ip to chapters 3 and 4 and make use of the instructional strategies that we present. Feel free to copy the reproducible materials in the appendix as they are, or modify them to better suit your needs and the needs of your students.

Many of the lessons in chapter 4 are scripted for you. Our rationale for this is simple. First, we consider specifi c examples to be illustrations rather than mere instructions. Second, we believe it important that a certain type of language be used. This language is not always comfortable, nor does it come

Knowledge of the Alphabetic Code Phonemic Awareness Skills

DECODING

Figure I.3: Decoding

7

naturally at fi rst. In our early days of using a phonemically driven approach, we would often fi nd ourselves sitting in front of our students and feeling completely tongue-tied. After too many such experiences, we began scripting the lessons for ourselves, writing out little “cheat sheets” that we could refer to if we became stuck in the middle of a lesson. If you are already familiar with the language patterns we present in this book, you may wish to consider these scripts just as starting points or guidelines for your own lessons. If, on the other hand, you are like us in our younger days, you may choose to follow closely the scripts offered here.

It is our hope that you fi nd the materials and activities included in this book easy to understand, fun, and easy to implement. Mastering phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding skills is of vital importance to your students as they develop as readers and spellers. Our classroom experiences have demonstrated that the activities we present are inherently enjoyable for students and enormously rewarding for teachers.

Heather Kenny

Introduction

1

No doubt you have heard the term phonemic awareness bandied about, but, like many teachers, you may not know exactly what it means or why it is crucial to students’ success in learning to

decode and encode. In this chapter, we defi ne each of these terms, explore the relationships among them, and discuss their importance to children’s overall literacy development.

PHONEMIC AWARENESSPhonemic awareness can be defi ned as the ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken language. It is the understanding that the word dog, for example, is made up of three distinct units of sound (/d/-/o/-/g/), and that it encompasses a child’s the ability to blend sounds together to form spoken words and the ability to segment, or pull apart, the sounds within those words. For example, if we were to say the sounds /s/-/a/-/t/, you could blend them together to form the word sat. If we were to say the sounds /t/-/ee/-/ch/-/er/, you could blend them together to form the word teacher. You will notice that the spoken word teacher has only four sounds, even though the printed version of the word is spelled with six letters. Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill that relates only to the sounds in spoken words; it has nothing to do with the letters that appear in print. In order to appreciate the importance of phonemic awareness to overall reading and spelling development, you must fi rst understand how spoken language is made up of phonemes and how phonemes can be orally blended, segmented, and manipulated.

Understanding Phonemes

The term phonemic awareness implies a child’s consciousness of phonemes, the individual sounds that make up spoken language. Phonemes are the

Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, and Encoding

10 A Sound Approach

smallest distinguishable units of speech—the fundamental building blocks of a language. While the precise number of phonemes in English varies according to dialect, there are approximately 41 sounds in the English language (see table 1.1). Every word that we speak is made up of one or more phonemes. Most words are made up of a combination of sounds, although a few words, such as the word I and the word a, consist of only one phoneme.

Although they are small units of sound and the differences between them are frequently subtle, phonemes wield tremendous linguistic power. It is just a single phoneme that can change a fi sh to a wish, a pet to a pot, and a snip to a sniff. Children learn to speak by attending to and producing the sounds that they hear. Very quickly, however, their attention to phonemes gives way to the imitation of words. When children begin to produce words, the phonemes overlap and become virtually indistinguishable as individual units of sound. The great irony is that, when they start learning to read, children must turn their attention back to the individual sounds in words, sounds that have no meaning in and of themselves. According to Marilyn Adams in Beginning

Table 1.1: English-Language Phonemes

Consonants Vowels

/b/ (bat) /s/ (sun) /a/ (at) /ow/ (how)

/d/ (dig) /t/ (tan) /e/ (get) /er/ (fl ower)

/f/ (fi t) /v/ (vat) /i/ (it) /ar/ (far)

/g/ (girl) /w/ (wish) /o/ (odd) /or/ (for)

/h/ (hello) /y/ (yet) /u/ (cup) /oo/ (moon)

/j/ (jump) /z/ (zeal) /ai/ (rain) /oo/ (look)

/k/ (king) /sh/ (shop) /ee/ (deep) /oy/ (joy)

/l/ (lip) /ch/ (chill) /ie/ (pie)

/m/ (must) /th/ (thick) /oe/ (coat)

/n/ (net) /th/ (then) /ew/ (cue)

/p/ (pin) /zh/ (treasure)

/r/ (run) /ng/ (sing)

(Ehri and Nunes 139; D. McGuinness xv.)

Note: qu and x each represent two phonemes (/k/-/w/ and /k/-/s/ respectively). Also note that we have not used the International Phonetic Alphabet to delineate these sounds. It has been our experience that most teachers are relatively unfamiliar with that system, and even many speech and language pathologists fi nd its use cumbersome. Instead, we have chosen to represent the sounds with common spelling patterns. (The letter combinations th and oo are common spelling patterns that are used to represent two sounds: /th/ as in thick, and /th/ as in then; /oo/ as in moon and /oo/ as in look.) Throughout the book we have provided key words so as to eliminate any ambiguity.

11

to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print, “regaining conscious awareness of the phonemic structure of speech is among the most diffi cult and critical steps toward becoming a reader” (412).

Blending and Segmenting Phonemes

Blending is the phonemic sub-skill that is directly linked to decoding, whereas segmenting, the reciprocal skill, is directly linked to spelling. This statement may seem rather abstract, so let us give you some concrete examples to help clarify these concepts. Imagine the following scenario: a kindergarten teacher is seated in front of a blank chalkboard. Her students are gathered at her feet. The teacher is looking into the faces of the children, who, in turn, are watching her mouth closely.

Teacher I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and I want you to tell me what the word is: /c/-/a/-/t/. (As she articulates the sounds in the word, the teacher leaves a one-second interval after each sound.)

Students cat

Teacher Very good. Let’s try a more difficult word: /f/-/l/-/ow/-/er/ (Once again, the teacher leaves a one-second interval after each of the sounds.)

Students flower

Teacher Excellent!

These students have just demonstrated their ability to blend phonemes; they have taken individual sounds and blended them together to form spoken words. You will notice that the teacher did not write either the word cat or the word fl ower on the chalkboard. This was strictly an oral language activity. The only visual cue to which the students had access was their teacher’s mouth as she carefully articulated the sounds. You will also notice that the teacher recognized that the word fl ower was slightly more diffi cult to blend than the word cat; as the number of phonemes in a word increases, so does the level of diffi culty in blending or segmenting them. But these students were up to the challenge. They were able to take discrete sounds and blend them together to form both cat and fl ower. Blending is the phonemic sub-skill that is directly linked to a child’s decoding, or reading, ability.

The teacher continues:

Teacher Now I’m going to say a word, and I want you to tell me each of the sounds in that word. The word is sit. (The teacher holds up her left hand in a fist and extends her thumb.)

Chapter 1: Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, and Encoding

12 A Sound Approach

Students /s/ (The teacher extends her index finger, leaving her thumb extended.)

Students /i/ (The teacher extends her middle finger, holding up all three digits.)

Students /t/

Teacher What word did you say? (The teacher pinches all three extended fingers together.)

Students sit

Teacher Terrific! Let’s try another word: clap. (The teacher holds up the same fist and extends her thumb, index, middle, and ring fingers in turn as her students say each corresponding sound.)

Students /c/-/l/-/a/-/p/

Teacher What word did you say? (The teacher pinches her fingers together.)

Students clap

Teacher Excellent!

This time, the students were engaged in segmenting words. They took seamless spoken words and pulled them apart into distinct, individual phonemes. You will notice that the teacher’s use of her thumb and fi ngers to cue the students was deliberate and served several purposes. First, by using her left hand, she reinforced the directionality of print. From the students’ perspective, her fi ngers moved in a left-to-right direction, each fi nger representing a single sound. This action mimics how children learn to decode text: letter by letter in a left-to-right fashion. Second, by cueing them with her fi ngers, she ensured that her students left a one-second interval between each sound, thus effectively segmenting the word, rather than just stretching it out. Finally, by fi rst extending and then pinching her fi ngers together, she represented the way sounds can be articulated individually and then blended together to form a single, spoken word. The second task (clap) was slightly more challenging than the fi rst (sit), as adjacent consonants (often referred to as consonant blends) are among the most diffi cult sounds in the English language to segment.

Phonemic blending and segmenting are reciprocal skills; however, of the two, segmenting is the more diffi cult task. In order to segment, students must take a spoken word, pull it apart into individual phonemes, and leave an auditory space between each of the sounds, indicating where one sound

13

ends and the next begins. (Printed words have visual spaces between them, and so readers are able to tell where one word ends and the next begins.) Segmenting is highly unnatural, given the seamless nature of spoken language. When we speak, we do not leave auditory spaces between words, let alone between individual sounds within words. And, to further complicate things, some phonemes are diffi cult to pronounce in isolation.

Take, for example, the sound /b/. /B/ is what speech and language pathologists refer to as a “stop” sound. In isolation, it should be pronounced only as a “pop.” It cannot be elongated; to do so, you would have to “vowelize” it by attaching the sound uh to the end of the consonant, which distorts the sound. If the sound /b/ were vowelized, for example, it would be pronounced buh. Vowelizing is a practice that can be particularly problematic for struggling readers. Let us visit a different kindergarten classroom. In this scenario, the teacher is standing in front of the chalkboard on which is printed, in perfect ball-and-stick letters, the word cap. The students are seated facing the chalkboard, looking up at the word.

Teacher Let’s sound out this word. (The teacher points to the letter c.) What sound does the letter c make?

Students kuh (The teacher then points to the letter a.)

Students /a/ (The teacher points to the letter p.)

Students puh

Teacher What word does that spell?

Several students immediately shout out cap, while others in the class are left to stare at the word in puzzlement. Arianna is one such student. She has no idea what she is supposed to do when her teacher asks the students to sound out a word. Arianna lacks the ability to blend and segment phonemes. Although some students in the class have developed blending and segmenting skills spontaneously (without any special instruction) Arianna has not. She cannot sound out anything.

Anwar is inherently phonemically aware, but, when he tries to blend kuh-/a/-puh (the vowelized “sounds” that his teacher has taught him), all he can come up with is kuapuh, not cap. Not surprisingly, kuh-/a/-puh sounds markedly different from the sounds /k/-/a/-/p/, which comprise the word cap. Like Arianna, Anwar struggles with decoding, but for a different reason. A child’s success in decoding depends on two factors: a knowledge of the sounds that letter-symbols represent and the ability to blend those sounds in order to recognize the spoken form of the word. Arianna cannot blend sounds, and hence she cannot decode. Anwar has a distorted concept of the sounds /k/ and /p/ (both of which should be pronounced as stop sounds).

Chapter 1: Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, and Encoding

14 A Sound Approach

Consequently, he, too, is unable to recognize the spoken form of the word cap. Neither Arianna nor Anwar can sound out words effectively, and this is a problem that is likely to have lasting and detrimental effects on their decoding, and hence their reading, abilities (see McGuinness).

Vowelizing is not the only problem demonstrated in this second scenario. The teacher has asked, “What sound does the letter c make?” Although such a question is hardly unusual in primary classrooms across North America, it is misguided and potentially misleading to students. If, for example, the letter t makes the sound /t/, then why is the sound /t/ not in the words the or thin? The answer is simply that t does not make the sound /t/. T does not make anything. The letter t is merely a visual symbol that is used to represent the sound /t/ in the word cat. This distinction is subtle, but it is crucial to understanding how the letters of our alphabet are used as a code for speech sounds. Although the visual symbol t can be used to represent the sound /t/ (as in the word talk), it can also be used in combination with the letter h to represent the sound /th/ as in thin, or the sound /th/ as in then. Individual letters (such as the letter t) and combinations of letters (such as the letters t and h) are merely visual representations of the spoken sounds of our language (see McGuinness).

Manipulating Phonemes

Blending and segmenting are by no means the only tasks associated with phonemes. Manipulating phonemes is another. It involves either deleting or substituting a phoneme or phonemes. Let us give you some examples. This time we are going to ask you to play along as if you were a student. Try deleting a sound within a word. Say the word sun. Now say it again without the /s/. The answer is, of course, un. Try another example: say the word nest, then and say it again without the /s/. That task was a bit more challenging, wasn’t it? You had to separate the adjacent consonants /s/ and /t/ in order to delete the sound /s/ and form the word net. Many struggling readers are able to segment simple consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words but are unable to break apart adjacent consonants.

Substituting phonemes is an even more challenging task. Try changing the /o/ in the word stop to /e/. The new word is step. Now change the /a/ in the word cat to /oe/. If you substituted the sound /a/ for the sound /oe/, you should have come up with the word coat. But, if you responded with cot, you are by no means alone. Many teachers at the workshops we give respond by saying cot, probably because, as adults and as skilled readers, we are not used to attending to individual sounds in words. Rather, we pay close attention to spelling patterns. Had we asked you to change the letter a to the letter o, cot would have been the correct answer. Instead, we asked you to substitute sounds.

15

This exercise highlights the fundamental difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill. It is not at all related to letters or to print. Phonics, on the other hand, links sounds to spelling patterns. If you changed the word cat to cot, you were engaged in mental phonics. You were imagining the spelling of the word cat, you removed the letter a, substituted the letter o, and “read” the word as cot.

DECODING AND ENCODINGThe term decoding can be defi ned as the ability to translate written symbols (letters) into spoken words. For example, if we were to show you the letters j u m p, you would be able to translate them into the spoken word jump. The term encoding is, quite simply, the reverse of decoding. It is one’s ability to translate spoken words into written symbols. If we were to say the word plant, you would be able to record the corresponding letters p l a n t.

You will notice that we make reference to the “spoken” forms of words. Skilled readers do not necessarily recite words out loud as they read, but they nevertheless do translate sequences of letters into the spoken forms of the words they are reading. Try reading the following passage without engaging in a running commentary in your head. Do not allow yourself to “think” the spoken words as you read them.

Readers normally acquire strategies for active comprehension informally.

Comprehension strategies are specific procedures that guide students to become

aware of how well they are comprehending as they attempt to read and write.

(National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 40)

If you were successful in preventing yourself from thinking the spoken forms of the words (a diffi cult, if not impossible, feat), chances are that you were unable to understand and follow the message in the passage. That is because, in order to retrieve meaning from strings of letters, we must fi rst connect them to spoken words (see Adams), if only in our “mind’s ear.” Thus, when we read, we “hear” the words on the page, even if we are not reading aloud.

It is important to note that decoding and encoding are not synonymous with reading and writing. Reading and writing are far more complex skills, which involve a host of higher-order cognitive processes. Decoding and encoding are, by comparison, lower-order skills. That being said, we must stress that decoding is a necessary precursor to skilled reading (see pages 4 and 5). If children cannot quickly and accurately decode words, then they will be unable to focus on comprehending the message of a text. Students with especially poor decoding skills may be unable to even access the message of a text. Children who struggle with encoding often have so much diffi culty

Chapter 1: Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, and Encoding

16 A Sound Approach

spelling that they cannot convey their messages effectively through writing, and these children often fi nd writing a diffi cult and onerous task.

If phonemic awareness is an auditory skill that has nothing to do with written language, why then is it so crucial that we learn to decode and encode? Pretend for a moment that you are a student. We are going to say the sounds in a word, and we want you to tell us what the word is: /g/-/l/-/a/-/d/. Did you say glad? Congratulations, you are phonemically aware! You can blend sounds together to form a spoken word. But what does that have to do with reading ability? Pretend now that you have never seen the following word:

w e n t

We want you to say each sound individually and then blend the sounds together to read the word. Think for a moment about what you just did. If you had not been able to blend those sounds together orally, would you have been able to sound out that word? Of course not. In order to successfully decode, or sound out, words, you must be able to recognize the sounds that the letters represent (for example: the letter w = the sound /w/; the letter e = the sound /e/; and so on) and blend the sounds together orally to form the spoken word.

Let us look at a different example. Try reading the following word:

t i p

You cannot read it at present because you do not have the requisite knowledge. You have no way of knowing which sounds these arbitrary symbols are intended to represent. So, the fi rst thing you must do is learn the sound-symbol correspondences (phonics).

t = /t/ i = /i/ p = /p/

Now are you able to read that word? How about this word?

i t

And this word?

p i t

Before you learned the sound-symbol correspondences, you were unable to successfully decode this written language because you lacked suffi cient knowledge about what these arbitrary symbols were intended to represent. Nevertheless, chances are that you already possessed the skills you needed in order to decode. Once you gained the requisite knowledge, you were able to decode the words tip, it, and pit. This lesson in phonics was successful, but only because you were already phonemically aware.

17

Students like Arianna, who lack the ability to blend sounds, are consequently unable to decode words. No amount of phonics knowledge will help them sound out words effectively if they lack the phonemic skills required to decode. We have interviewed many struggling readers in grade 3 and above who, when asked to sound out words, had no idea what to do. These students could not understand what the term sound out meant because they could not blend sounds. Phonemic awareness is therefore the step before phonics. In order for children to be able use their knowledge about letters and sounds and to decode words, they must fi rst be phonemically aware.

As you can see, a student’s ability to blend is crucial to his or her ability to decode. It would stand to reason, then, that a student’s ability to segment (the reciprocal skill) would be crucial to his or her ability to encode (spell). Such is the case. If you were a child who wanted to spell an unfamiliar word, what knowledge and skills would you need in order to be successful? Pretend once again that you are a student and that you wanted to spell the following word:

r e s t

The fi rst thing you would need to do is segment the sounds in that word: /r/-/e/-/s/-/t/ (phonemic awareness). Then you would need to know how those sounds are represented by letters (phonics): the sound /r/ is represented by the letter r; the sound /e/ is represented by the letter e; and so on. Your knowledge of the sound-symbol correspondences enabled you to record the sounds that you heard in that word. But you would not have known which sounds to record if you had not been able to segment them fi rst.

Once we, the authors, recognized the importance of phonemic awareness to reading and spelling, we began to incorporate blending and segmenting instruction into our literacy program. We were surprised and delighted to fi nd that our students were fascinated by this new way of manipulating spoken language. It was not uncommon for us to witness scenarios much like this:

Lauren and Justin were seated at the craft center amidst a sea of multi-

colored construction paper. Pencils, crayons, and markers were scattered

about the table. Both students were deeply involved in their own projects.

Justin looked up and noticed a pair of scissors in Lauren’s hand. “Hey,

Lauren! Give me your /sc/-/i/-/ss/-/or/-/s/,” he commanded. Lauren glanced

up at him briefly before turning her attention back to her creation. Without

missing a beat, she responded, “Get your /ow/-/n/.”

Parents also reported random acts of blending and segmenting. One father told me with a chuckle that, whenever he teased his daughter, she would “sound him out.” “/D/-/a/-/d/!” she would exclaim, “/s/-/t/-/o/-/p/ it. Right /n/-/ow/!”

Chapter 1: Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, and Encoding

18 A Sound Approach

As interesting as it was to see how the children were able to transfer their blending and segmenting skills to contexts outside of school, what was most thrilling for us was the manner in which they were able to transfer those skills to the context that mattered most: reading and spelling. Phonemic awareness has no intrinsic worth. Its value lies only in its capacity to help children understand and access the alphabetic code to read and write effectively. But as Adams observes, “the extent [to which] children do have [phonemic awareness] skills, reading instruction can be fruitful and to the extent that they do not, it cannot” (56–57).

2

By now, you probably have a good general understanding of the terms phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding, and you understand their importance to a child’s literacy development. There is an

additional set of terms, however, that are related—phonological awareness, phonics, and alphabetic coding—and these are often confused with phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding. It is important that we distinguish among these concepts. In this chapter, we examine each of the three new concepts in turn and discuss how they differ from phonemic awareness, decoding, and encoding, as well as their implications for literacy instruction.

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESSLike phonemic awareness, phonological awareness refers to the sounds in spoken language and has nothing whatsoever to do with printed language. Yet, while phonemic awareness refers specifi cally to a sensitivity to phonemes (the smallest unit of sound), phonological awareness refers to “a sensitivity to any size unit of sound” (Yopp and Yopp 131, emph. in original). Thus, the term phonological awareness is an umbrella term that encompasses a number of skills of varying degrees of diffi culty (including phonemic awareness). Table 2.1 shows various phonological tasks on a continuum from simple to complex. As the table shows, the recognition of rhyming patterns and recitation of nursery rhymes are relatively simple phonological tasks, which children typically master in their preschool years. For example: sat, cat, hat, bat, mat; Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Another relatively simple phonological task shown in table 2.1 is segmenting a sentence into individual words. For example: Humpty – Dumpty – sat – on – a – wall. A slightly more complex task is breaking a single, multi-syllabic word into syllables. For example: hel – i – cop – ter; di – no – saur.

Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

20 A Sound Approach

The next step along the phonological continuum is further subdividing a single syllable (either a single-syllable word or a single syllable within a multi-syllabic word) into onset and rime components. Onset refers to any consonant or group of consonants that comes before the vowel. Rime refers to the vowel plus whatever comes after it. The rime is the part of the word that rhymes. Consider the examples in table 2.2.

The last step on the Phonological Skills Continuum is phonemic awareness: the most complex of all of the phonological tasks, and it is the only skill that is directly linked to decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling). The great irony in this is that the phonological skills required for reading develop in reverse order to the order in which children draw upon those skills in their reading development (see table 2.3 on page 22).

Among the very fi rst skills that beginning readers need to master is that of decoding words. Yet this most basic, fundamental reading skill is dependent on phonemic awareness, the most complex phonological skill, and the one that is typically the last of all the phonological skills to develop.

Once children have had suffi cient practice in decoding and encoding simple words, they begin to recognize common spelling patterns (also referred to as orthographic patterns). Instead of having to sound out /a/ and /t/ to decode words such as at, sat, or mat, at this stage they begin to recognize the sound chunk at, and they draw upon their onset-rime blending skills to read these words automatically. Finally, as they begin to encounter longer, multi-syllabic words, children draw upon their ability to blend syllables in order to read these words.

Another great irony is that the most important of all the phonological skills (phonemic awareness) is often the most neglected. In preschool and kindergarten, children are typically engaged in a host of rhyming games and activities. They practice chants and learn to segment sentences into words; they play games in which they blend and segment syllables. By the end of kindergarten or the beginning of fi rst grade, children are often given practice blending and segmenting onset-rime components. They are introduced to

Table 2.1: Phonological Skills Continuum

Recognizing Segmenting Blending and Blending and Blending andrhyming sentences into segmenting segmenting onset- segmenting patterns or individual words syllables rime components phonemesnursery rhymes

ggggggggggggggggggggggSimple More Complex Most Complex

21

consonant blends such as br, cr, dr, fr, gr, and so on, and they blend those sound units with rimes (often referred to as word families) such as at, it, in, and an. Yet the phonological instruction often ends there. Many children never receive direct instruction in the phonological skills that will have the most direct and positive effect on their reading and spelling abilities: the blending and segmenting of individual phonemes. The lessons, games, and activities included in this book are designed to help you assess and teach your beginning and struggling readers these crucial reading sub-skills.

PHONICSIf you are not entirely sure about the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics, you are by no means alone. It is the question most frequently asked by teachers at our workshops. Even in professional resources, the two terms are often used interchangeably.

Phonemic awareness refers to blending and segmenting the individual sounds in spoken words. The term phonics refers to a method of reading instruction that emphasizes sound-symbol correspondences. Rudimentary phonics instruction teaches children that the letter a spells the sound /a/, the letter b the sound /b/, and so on. Once children learn these basic sound-symbol correspondences, phonics instruction teaches them to sound out, or decode, simple words. Children sounding out the word sat would look at each letter individually, say the corresponding sounds (/s/-/a/-/t/), then blend the sounds together to read the word. Blending sounds is a necessary step in the process. If children lack the ability to blend sounds orally, they are simply unable to decode words. And without the ability to decode words, they cannot benefi t from phonics instruction.

The difference between phonemic awareness and phonics can be summed up in a single word: letters. As soon as we attach visual symbols (letters) to sounds, the activity is no longer phonemic awareness; it is phonics. Look back at our fi rst scenario in chapter 1 (pages 11 and 12): the teacher was sitting in front of a blank chalkboard looking into the faces of her students. The children, in turn, were watching her mouth closely as she

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

Table 2.2: Subdividing Single-Syllable Words

Word Onset Rime

split spl it

spit sp it

sit s it

it – it

22 A Sound Approach

directed them to blend and segment words. These students were engaged in a phonemic awareness activity; they were not attending to the letters in the word; they were focusing exclusively on the sounds. The only visual cue to which they had access was their teacher’s mouth.

The teacher in the second scenario in chapter 1 (page 13) was standing in front of a chalkboard on which was printed the word cap. Her students were seated in front of her, looking up at the word. She instructed them to say each sound aloud, then read the word. These students were engaged in phonics.

Phonics is an important—even essential—part of any learn-to-read program. With a strong foundation of phonics skills, children are able to decode unfamiliar words—words that they may have never seen before. When this happens—as it should—reading becomes a self-teaching mechanism (see Adams). But, without the ability to decode, students have limited options for identifying an unknown word. They could (1) ask somebody to tell them the word (this strategy is likely to soon become very tiresome), (2) memorize the word, or (3) predict the word based on other cues. None of these options is effective as a primary reading strategy, the fi rst for obvious reasons, and the latter two for more subtle, yet equally compelling, reasons.

Let us examine memorization as a primary reading strategy. When learning to read, children must rely, to some degree, on visual memory. They need to memorize the shapes of letters and other visual symbols, such as punctuation marks. In addition, they need to memorize in their entirety a fi nite number of words. Beginning readers frequently rely on visual patterns to memorize words such as mom, dad, dog, cat, and so on. While this strategy can be effective in the short term, memorizing every new word that comes along is not a good long-term option (see Adams). There are simply too many new words to learn.

There is a natural limit to the capacity of the human brain to memorize arbitrary visual symbols such as letters, numbers, and whole words. Even students with outstanding visual memories can never hope to memorize every word they encounter in print (McGuinness 50), since there are between

Table 2.3: Reading Skills and Requisite Phonological Skills

Reading Skill Phonological Skill Required

Decoding simple words Phonemic Awareness

Fluency in recognizing simple Onset-rime blending orthographic (spelling) patterns

Decoding multi-syllabic words Syllable blending

23

1.2 and 2 million words in the English lexicon, with an additional 1 200 to 20 000 new words added each year (Rasinski et al.).

Students who over-rely on visual memory to identify words can appear to be very successful readers in the early primary grades. But, as their reading vocabularies expand, their visual memories become overloaded, and they begin to experience more and more diffi culty acquiring new words and distinguishing among familiar words. Take, for example, the words house and horse. These words are commonly misread by children who over-rely on visual memory. Without the benefi t of picture cues, it is easy for these students to mistake house for horse or horse for house. With the exception of one medial letter, the two words are identical. Yet students who have good decoding and word-analysis skills do not tend to make such mistakes. They intuitively recognize that the letters ou could never spell the sound /or/, nor could the letters or ever spell the sound /ow/ (see McGuinness).

Now let us examine prediction as a primary reading strategy. In the early primary grades, children can be quite successful in predicting words using their knowledge of initial sounds and context cues. If a sentence in a picture book reads “The man rode his h____,” there is usually a big picture of a horse to go along with it. In this context, children at the early primary level can predict most words with relative ease. The students did not actually analyze the word; they just made an educated guess based on picture cues. And, while they will probably be able to guess correctly most of the time throughout their early primary years, they will not be able to rely on this strategy to serve them when the words start getting bigger and the accompanying pictures start getting smaller. The problem lies in the fact that context cues are largely unreliable: “The child depends on the meaning of the passage to infer the meaning of its less familiar words, yet the meaning of the passage depends disproportionately on the meanings of its less frequent words” (Adams 217).

Try a decoding exercise that we frequently use in our workshops. The exercise is scheduled just before a coffee break; we ask teachers to complete it on their own and not to share their answers with anyone until after the break. Decode the following message, using the key shown in table 2.4. Fill in your answer in the blanks, or, if you really want a challenge, try doing it mentally:

t i q l z u b n m v S

___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___

Almost all our workshop participants are able to successfully decode the fi rst three words (Time for a …), although, admittedly, some have diffi culty with the word a; they are surprised that the word a is composed of the same phoneme as the vowel sound in the word cup. It is the fourth word that generally causes diffi culty. We typically fi nd that teachers fall into one of

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

24 A Sound Approach

two camps: those who rely on their decoding skills to analyze and correctly identify the word as brownie; and those who use initial consonant and contextual cues to predict (incorrectly) the word as break. So, what happens when you look only at the fi rst few sounds and predict the word based on context cues? You miss the brownie!

Our decoding exercise also demonstrates how mentally challenging it can be to decode words on a letter-by-letter, sound-by-sound basis. You might ask why, if our ultimate goal is to enable our students to recognize entire words quickly and effortlessly, we subject them to the letter-by-letter sounding-out strategy that is so laborious for them (and so painful for us to witness). Would it not be more effi cient to teach students to recognize words wholistically? In short, no! We know that letter-by-letter decoding is a necessary precursor to profi cient reading (see Moats, Teaching). And, without spending the requisite time learning how letters are used to represent sounds and how those sounds combine to form words, children cannot develop the word-analysis skills required for skilled reading.

We must also bear in mind that the early stages of any complex skill bear little resemblance to the later, more developed, stages. Let us use a concrete example to illustrate this phenomenon. Playing hockey is a complex skill that is composed of a number of sub-skills, including skating, stopping, and puck-handling, to name just a few. Highly skilled hockey players, like those in the National Hockey League (NHL), are fl uent in all the necessary sub-skills, and they are able to easily and seamlessly integrate those skills. If you have ever watched an NHL game, you will know that such highly skilled players can make skating and puck-handling look natural, even graceful.

Now let us imagine that we are watching a group of four- and fi ve-year-olds playing hockey. Instead of gliding gracefully across the ice, passing the puck effortlessly from one player to the next, these children move haltingly, occasionally stumbling and sprawling face-fi rst onto the ice. The puck is rarely passed from one player to the next. When it is, it typically lands far

Table 2.4: Alphabetic Symbols Key

b = /b/ as in bat S = /ee/ as in see

l = /f/ as in fan i = /ie/ as in pie

q = /m/ as in man u = /u/ as in cup

v = /n/ as in new m = /ow/ as in cow

n = /r/ as in red z = /or/ as in store

t = /t/ as in top

25

from any of the skaters, and the spectators must wait patiently while the tiny players make their slow and laborious trek to retrieve it.

The game played by four- and fi ve-year-olds looks very different from an NHL game, yet we know that every player in the NHL was once a fi ve-year-old. Those players ended up as professionals not because they found a way to avoid skating or stopping or puck handling but because they practiced until they developed fl uency in each of the requisite sub-skills.

Like playing hockey, reading is a complex skill. Highly skilled readers make reading appear natural and effortless, but this impression belies the many hours that they have spent mastering and learning to integrate the sub-skills required for fl uent decoding. Many educators erroneously assume that the goal of phonics instruction is merely to teach children to decode words. In fact, however, phonics instruction is intended to enable students to identify words so effortlessly that their conscious attention can be devoted solely to the comprehension of text (see Adams).

Now let us turn our attention back to our decoding exercise. If you correctly decoded the word brownie, then you did exactly what skilled readers do. Skilled readers typically analyze and process every letter of every word that they come across (McConkie and Zola, as cited in Adams 101). We do not mean to imply that when reading, skilled readers do not make use of contextual prompts, including semantic (meaning) and syntactic (grammar) cues. These cueing systems are used frequently, but they are used most effectively to confi rm rather than to identify the meanings of words. Let us give you an example of the type of scenario that we witnessed countless times when working with our beginning and struggling readers:

Santiago, a delightful kindergarten student with a rich, melodic voice,

is reading aloud the following sentence: “The man was kind to his dog.”

Initially, he sounds out the word kind using the short vowel sound /i/.

This behavior is natural, since he has been taught the sound-symbol

correspondences for the short vowels. But Santiago knows that the words

he reads are supposed to sound like spoken words. He immediately

recognizes that this pronunciation does not sound like a word and,

without prompting, he examines the rest of the words in the sentence,

determines the correct pronunciation of the word kind, and rereads the

sentence correctly.

Santiago was developing the habits of a good reader. The written word kind was unfamiliar to him, but, rather than looking at the fi rst sound and guessing at the word, he attempted to decode it in its entirety. His preliminary decoding efforts did not result in the correct pronunciation of the word, but it did provide him with what we term a phonetic approximation. The phonetic approximation sounded enough like the actual word that, when

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

26 A Sound Approach

he combined this information with contextual cues, he was able to correctly identify the word. We were of, course, not privy to Santiago’s thought process, but, if we had been, then we may have heard something like the following. (Santiago’s spoken words are enclosed in quotation marks. His thoughts are enclosed in square brackets.)

“The – man – was – /k/-/i/-/n/-/d/…” [K/i/nd? No, that can’t be right.]

“The man was k/i/nd – to – his – dog.” [I wonder if it’s the word kind. That

would make sense. (Santiago examines the word kind more closely.) Yeah,

that word looks like it could spell kind /k/-/ie/-/n/-/d/, kind.]

“The man was kind to his dog!”

Heather recalls another example of the effective use of a phonetic approximation combined with contextual cues to correctly determine the meaning of a word. She was in her second year of high school when she fi rst encountered the word epitome in print. When she initially attempted the word, she pronounced it as e-pi-tome (with the emphasis on the fi rst syllable and the fi nal syllable rhyming with the word comb). She immediately recognized this pronunciation as a non-word and used the context to determine that it must be e-pi-to-me (with the emphasis on the second syllable). Heather distinctly remembers the sudden fl ash of understanding when she realized, “Oh! So that’s how you spell epitome!” Both Heather and Santiago, thanks to their decoding skills, were able to use reading as a self-teaching activity.

Compare Santiago’s and Heather’s reading behaviors with Connor’s. Connor was a struggling reader in third grade when his parents sought the help of a private tutor. As part of an initial series of assessments, the tutor asked Connor to read a passage from an appropriate grade-level text. It quickly became apparent to the tutor that Connor, while bright and articulate, had poor word-identifi cation skills. Whenever he came across an unfamiliar word in the text, he used the initial consonant or consonants to guess at the word. The problem was that his guesses, while reasonable, were often incorrect. Once, after spending several minutes reading about a “strange mouse” and desperately trying to make sense of the passage, Connor gave up. As it turned out, the mouse was not so strange after all. In fact, there had never been a mouse; the passage was about “strong magic.”

Students like Connor, who are unable to analyze words, often must rely on guessing (or prediction) to identify unknown words. When used as a primary word-identifi cation strategy, predicting is highly ineffi cient and often has dire consequences.* For example: Anthony, at the tender age of

*Although making predictions is ineffective as a primary word-identifi cation strategy, it is highly effective as a comprehension strategy. Students should be encouraged to make predictions in order to better understand texts.

27

eight, had given up on expecting his reading to make sense. Consequently, he did not bother to pay attention to whether the words he read were real words or nonsense words. This behavior—which initially seems very strange—is disturbingly widespread amongst students who struggle with decoding. Anthony’s tutor reported that, whenever he came to an unfamiliar word, Anthony’s voice would drop, and he would mutter something unintelligible, then carry on reading. If his tutor asked him to stop and reread the section of text a bit louder, Anthony’s reading would sound a bit like this: “The schmuh…was trub in the fl uv.”

Stephanie, a fi fth grader, at least recited real words. Unfortunately, those words often made no sense when strung together. If a text read “They went to the store to buy apples and bananas,” Stephanie’s reading would sound something like this: “They went at the stair to but apple a bandana.” When the resource teacher heard Stephanie’s oral reading, the teacher asked, “Stephanie, why are you reading that way? Your reading doesn’t make any sense.” Stephanie thought for a moment and then replied, “Well, most of the time I read to myself. No one can hear what’s in my head, so when I make mistakes it doesn’t matter. I can just keep going.”

ALPHABETIC CODINGPhonemic awareness instruction is important, but it is not suffi cient to ensure that learners will be able to decode and encode successfully. Children must also understand how letters represent sounds. This understanding is referred to as a knowledge of the alphabetic code, which is not to be confused with the alphabet. The alphabet, a term used to describe the 26 symbols from A to Z, is merely a set of letters that are used to spell words. The term alphabetic code refers to the correspondence between the sounds in words and the letters or letter combinations that are used to spell those sounds.

Recall for a moment our phonics lesson in chapter 1 (page 16). We asked you to read the following word:

t i p

Initially you could not read it because you did not have the requisite knowledge. You did not know which sounds those arbitrary symbols were intended to represent. Once you learned the representations (you gained alphabetic-code knowledge), you were able to successfully read the word as tip. The same is true, of course, for children: before they can successfully decode and encode, they must have suffi cient knowledge of the alphabetic code.

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

28 A Sound Approach

Note that we used the qualifi er suffi cient in reference to students’ knowledge of alphabetic coding. We taught you individual sounds that were represented by individual symbols. This system of representation—one sound as represented by one letter—is referred to as a “one-to-one” mapping pattern, and it is the simplest mapping pattern in English. But, unfortunately, it is not the only mapping pattern.

As noted in table 1.1 (page 10), there are approximately 41 English sounds but only 26 letters. Some sounds must therefore be represented by combinations of letters. Hence, the letters s and h, which represent the sounds /s/ and /h/ individually, are combined to spell the sound /sh/. Such letter combinations are referred to as digraphs.

Digraphs are not to be confused with consonant blends, a term commonly applied to adjacent consonants. For example, the letters ch in the word chip, make up a digraph. When we segment chip, we break it down into the phonemes /ch/ - /i/ - /p/. The letters c and h work together to spell a single phoneme: /ch/. Contrast this with the consonant blend gr in the word grip. When we segment grip, we break it down into the phonemes /g/ - /r/ - /i/ - /p/. The letters g and r are each used to represent a different phoneme (the g represents /g/; the r represents /r/). These phonemes can then be blended together to form the sound unit gr, hence the term consonant blend.

Most beginning and struggling readers are familiar with simple one-to-one mapping patterns. Kindergarten students typically are taught the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that those letters most commonly represent. Primary students are also taught the most common consonant digraphs. Even many struggling readers know that the letters ch represents the sound /ch/, the letters sh the sound /sh/, and the letters th the sounds /th/ (as in thin) or /th/ (as in then), and they can identify the initial sound or sounds within words.

What beginning and struggling readers and spellers are often unfamiliar with are vowel digraphs such as ou, au, igh, and (our personal favorites) eigh, aigh, oul, and ough. These complex letter combinations are rarely taught as acceptable spelling patterns for the sounds that they represent, and, consequently, children are often at a loss about how to analyze words that contain them. To complicate matters further, students rarely receive direct instruction about what to do with the letters after the initial consonants. Since children are often taught to over-rely on sight-word knowledge or prediction skills, they frequently get into the habit of taking a close look at the fi rst few letters and a quick glance at the word ending, and then largely ignoring whatever is in the middle. Over time, the overuse of these strategies promotes sloppy reading.

29

We have heard countless well-meaning teachers lament that they cannot understand why their struggling readers do not pay close attention to words. The teachers’ rationale is that, if their students would only look more carefully at each word (that is, sound it out), then word identifi cation, and hence reading skills, would improve. While there is some truth to this logic (that is, that struggling readers have often been taught to rely so heavily on memorization and initial consonants that they do not bother attending to the medial and fi nal parts of words), it is important to acknowledge that the problem is often far more deeply rooted. Even if these children were taught to look carefully at words in their entirety, chances are that they still would not know what to do with them. Even with well-developed phonemic blending and segmenting skills (which an overwhelming percentage of struggling decoders do not possess), it is likely that these struggling students would still lack suffi cient knowledge about the complex elements of the alphabetic code.

Inasmuch as English is a complex, irregular language, be heartened: there are far more regularities than there are irregularities. Even words that are typically considered to be irregular are usually more regular than they are irregular. Take, for example, the word friend, which is often treated as a sight word because of its irregular spelling pattern. First, let us segment it into phonemes: /f/ - /r/ - /e/ - /n/ - /d/. Now let us match the spelling patterns to the sounds in the word: f = /f/; r = /r/; /ei = /e/; n = /n/; d = /d/. Four of the fi ve sounds in the word friend are represented by simple, one-to-one mapping patterns. Hence the word is 80 percent regular and only 20 percent irregular. Only the sound /e/ is represented by an uncommon spelling pattern.

Let us now pretend that we are beginning readers who are familiar with only one-to-one mapping and a few frequently used sight words, such as my, play, with, me, and is. We are given a simple story to read. The text reads as follows: “My dog Sam plays with me. He is my best friend.” We are able to identify the word my based on our sight-word knowledge. Dog and Sam are highly decodable words. And we are able to read the remainder of the fi rst sentence and the beginning of the second based on our knowledge of sight words. We are left, then, with the words best (which we can decode) and friend.

We might use initial consonants to predict (guess) the word friend. But, if we started with a phonetic approximation instead, we would begin by sounding out the word as follows: /f/ /r/ /i/ /e/ /n/ /d/. When we read the entire sentence, we get: “My dog Sam plays with me. He is my best fri-end.” Provided that we have been monitoring our reading and that we have the word friend in our speaking vocabulary, we would automatically self-correct and read the word correctly. Our phonetic approximation (fri-end), combined with an understanding of the context of the sentence, is suffi cient to enable us to recognize the word as friend.

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

30 A Sound Approach

Tabl

e 2.

5: R

ecom

men

ded

Sequ

ence

of I

nstr

ucti

on fo

r B

lend

ing,

Seg

men

ting

, Dec

odin

g, a

nd E

ncod

ing

Gra

de L

evel

E

nd-

of-Y

ear

Obj

ecti

ves

Page

Nu

mbe

rs

K

✓

Stud

ents

will

rec

ogni

ze a

nd b

e ab

le to

rec

ord

the

mos

t com

mon

sou

nds

asso

ciat

ed w

ith

the

26 le

tter

s of

the

alph

abet

. Le

sson

1.1

(90

–93)

✓

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uden

ts w

ill b

e ab

le to

aud

itor

ally

dis

crim

inat

e be

twee

n al

l sho

rt v

owel

sou

nds,

usi

ng k

ines

thet

ic m

nem

onic

cue

s

Act

ivit

y 2.

3 (4

5–46

)

as

nee

ded.

* Le

sson

1.1

(90

–93)

✓

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uden

ts w

ill b

e ab

le to

ble

nd, s

egm

ent*

, rea

d an

d sp

ell t

wo

and

thre

e ph

onem

e w

ords

(V

C a

nd C

VC

) th

at e

mpl

oy

Act

ivit

y 2.

4 (4

6–47

)

on

e-to

-one

map

ping

pat

tern

s.

Less

on 1

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93–9

4)

Less

on 1

.3 (

94–9

5)

Less

on 1

.4 (

95–9

6)

Less

on 1

.5 (

96)

✓

W

ith

guid

ance

, stu

den

ts w

ill b

egin

to u

se d

ecod

ing

skill

s to

iden

tify

unk

now

n w

ords

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onte

xt.*

Le

sson

1.7

(97

–98)

✓

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uden

ts w

ill b

egin

to u

se e

ncod

ing

skill

s to

pho

net

ical

ly s

pell

wor

ds in

thei

r ow

n w

riti

ng.

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sson

1.6

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)

1 ✓

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uden

ts w

ill d

emon

stra

te m

aste

ry o

f all

of th

e sk

ills

deve

lope

d in

the

prev

ious

yea

r.

✓

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uden

ts w

ill b

e ab

le to

dis

crim

inat

e au

dito

rally

bet

wee

n sh

ort v

owel

sou

nds

rapi

dly

and

wit

h au

tom

atic

ity.

* A

ctiv

ity

2.3

(45–

46)

✓

St

uden

ts w

ill r

ecog

nize

and

be

able

to r

ecor

d th

e fo

llow

ing

digr

aphs

: sh,

ch,

th, c

k, e

r, ir

, or,

ur, a

r.*

Less

on 2

.1 (

99)

Le

sson

3.1

(10

1–10

3)

✓

St

uden

ts w

ill r

ecog

nize

and

be

able

to r

ecor

d th

ree

com

mon

spe

lling

pat

tern

s fo

r ea

ch o

f the

long

vow

el s

ound

s.*

Less

on 3

.1 (

101–

103)

✓

St

uden

ts w

ill b

e ab

le to

ble

nd, s

egm

ent,

read

an

d sp

ell s

ingl

e sy

llabl

e w

ords

(in

clud

ing

CC

VC

, CC

CV

C, C

VC

C, C

CV

CC

,

Less

on 2

.1 (

99)

CC

CV

CC

wor

ds)*

usi

ng a

ll fa

mili

ar m

appi

ng p

atte

rns

(inc

ludi

ng d

igra

phs)

*.

Less

on 2

.2 (

99–1

00)

✓

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uden

ts w

ill in

depe

nden

tly d

ecod

e si

mpl

e w

ords

in th

e co

ntex

t of a

sto

ry.

Less

on 2

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101)

✓

St

uden

ts w

ill u

se k

now

ledg

e of

dig

raph

s to

pho

net

ical

ly s

pell

wor

ds in

thei

r ow

n w

riti

ng.

Le

sson

2.3

(10

0)

2 ✓

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ts w

ill d

emon

stra

te m

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ry o

f all

of th

e sk

ills

deve

lope

d in

pre

viou

s ye

ars.

✓

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ts w

ill r

ecog

nize

and

be

able

to r

ecor

d co

mm

on s

pelli

ng p

atte

rns

for

all p

hone

mes

.*

Less

on 3

.1 (

101–

103)

✓

St

uden

ts w

ill b

e ab

le to

ble

nd, s

egm

ent,

deco

de a

nd e

ncod

e w

ords

con

tain

ing

fam

iliar

spe

lling

pat

tern

s.*

Less

on 3

.2 (

103–

104)

Le

sson

3.3

(10

4–10

5)

Less

on 3

.4 (

105)

✓

St

uden

ts w

ill u

se d

ecod

ing

as a

pri

mar

y w

ord

iden

tifi

cati

on s

trat

egy

(pho

neti

c ap

prox

imat

ions

) an

d us

e m

eani

ng

Less

on 3

.6 (

106)

and

gram

mar

cue

s to

con

fi rm

the

mea

ning

of u

nkno

wn

wor

ds w

hen

read

ing

inde

pend

ently

.*

✓

St

uden

ts w

ill u

se k

now

ledg

e of

com

mon

spe

lling

pat

tern

s to

app

roxi

mat

e co

nven

tion

al s

pelli

ng in

thei

r ow

n w

riti

ng.*

Le

sson

3.5

(10

5–10

6)

Not

e: A

lthou

gh th

ey a

re n

ot r

epre

sent

ed o

n th

is ta

ble,

man

y ol

der

read

ers

who

are

stru

gglin

g—th

ose

beyo

nd s

econ

d gr

ade—

will

also

nee

d di

rect

, tar

gete

d in

stru

ctio

n in

ph

onem

ic a

war

enes

s, a

lpha

betic

cod

ing,

dec

odin

g, a

nd e

ncod

ing

skill

s. F

or th

ese

stude

nts,

we

stron

gly

reco

mm

end

that

you

ass

ess

thei

r kn

owle

dge

and

skill

leve

l prio

r to

pl

anni

ng in

struc

tiona

l int

erve

ntio

ns. (

Repr

oduc

ible

Pho

nem

ic A

war

enes

s an

d A

lpha

betic

Cod

ing

asse

ssm

ents

can

be

foun

d on

pag

es 1

07 to

115

.)

*The

se a

re c

ruci

al s

kills

that

are

frqu

ently

und

er-d

evel

oped

in s

trugg

ling

read

ers.

31

Now let us look at another possible phonetic approximation. Let us say that we recognized the digraph ie and know that it can spell the sound /ie/. We sound out the word, but, this time, we come up with: /f/ /r/ /ie/ /n/ /d/. Our pronunciation will be wrong (frynd), but, once again, the approximation is close enough to friend to enable us to recognize the word in context.

Rather than relying on prediction strategies (which, if over-used in the long run, will ultimately undermine our reading attempts) in the exercise that we just did, we used our decoding skills to analyze the word on a sound-by-sound basis, and reading was a self-teaching activity. We were able to identify a previously unknown word (friend), and we would have a very good chance of recognizing it, or at least of being able to decode it again if we encountered it in another section of text. The beauty of this system (that is, using decoding as a primary word identifi cation strategy, then confi rming the meaning of the word by using contextual cues) is that, in addition to promoting strong decoding skills, it promotes comprehension. Students must monitor their own reading and constantly ask themselves, “Is that a word I know? Does that word make sense?”

Had Anthony (page 26) been taught this strategy (and the phonemic awareness and alphabetic coding sub-skills required to employ this strategy), his oral reading would not have included non-words such as schmuh, trub, and fl uv. Had Stephanie (page 27) learned to monitor for comprehension at the word level, she would not have been content to read a nonsensical sentence such as “They went at the stair to but apple a bandana.”

We are often asked by school- and district-level administrators what a sequence of instruction in the primary grades should look like. Their basic questions are usually What should be taught and when? and How do we ensure that students are taught everything that they need to know in order to be successful decoders and encoders? Table 2.5 outlines a recommended sequence of instruction and links the objectives to the sections of the book that include strategy instruction in those skills.

A WORD ABOUT SIGHT WORDSEvery letter of every word in the English language is used to spell, or to help spell, a sound in a word. In that sense, any English word could potentially be decoded. All one would need to know is how those letters (or spelling patterns) represent sounds. However, given that English is an irregular language that has been subject to a wide variety of infl uences, including other languages (see McGuinness), some accepted spelling patterns are so rare, or appear to be so illogical, that it would be absurd to teach them as patterns at all. Instead, it makes sense to introduce students to those words discretely, and to encourage them to recognize these words in their entirety. We refer to

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

32 A Sound Approach

such words as sight words. Just as children memorize the arbitrary symbols that we call letters, so too can they memorize a limited number of seemingly arbitrary letter sequences.

In our own teaching, we classify words into three categories: highly decodable words, semi-decodable words, and sight words. Highly decodable words are, simply, those words that contain common spelling patterns and that can be decoded easily. Words such as mom, dad, dog, and cat fall into this category, as do words such as cake, book, and snore (provided that students have learned the accompanying spelling patterns). Strong decoders are able to recognize such words based on their spelling patterns alone. They do not need context to aid them in word identifi cation.

We use the term semi-decodable to refer to words that are decodable within the context of a story. We consider the word his to be one such word. If a child were reading the text “Sam and his dog went home,” the child might initially pronounce the word his as hiss. This pronunciation would be quite normal, since the student has probably been taught that the letter s typically spells the sound /s/. Hiss is a phonetic approximation that is relatively close to the actual pronunciation of the word hiss. When presented with meaning and grammar cues embedded in the context of the sentence, the child can easily self-correct and accurately identify the word.

Sight words are highly irregular in their spelling patterns. Unfortunately for beginning readers, it is often the shorter, higher-frequency words that tend to fall into this category. Such words cannot be reliably identifi ed even with contextual cues. For your reference, we include a chart listing words that we believe should be taught to students by sight (see table 2.6). Please note that there may be other words that could be included in this chart. We recommend, however, that, before choosing to teach any word by sight, you give careful consideration to the distinction among highly decodable words, semi-decodable words, and sight words. Remember that decoding is a high-yield strategy. Armed with a knowledge of the alphabetic code and the ability to blend the sounds in words, children can identify hundreds of words in isolation, and thousands more in the context of their reading experiences. Conversely, to teach a word by sight is to add but a single word to a child’s reading vocabulary.

You will notice that some of the sight words on our list can be decoded (for, like, see, just to name a few). The problem is that these words are so common that they are frequently encountered by beginning readers, who are just being introduced to the simplest, most basic elements of the alphabetic code (one-to-one mapping patterns) and have no knowledge of digraphs. We recommend that you teach these words only as needed, adding them to a sight word-wall as you introduce them. We also recommend that you

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

After introducing kinesthetic cues for various sight words, Laura noticed that several of her second-grade students who were struggling with sight-word identifi cation would act out the actions associated with these words while reading stories silently or in small groups. When reading aloud with Laura, if a child could not recall the sight word, Laura would silently demonstrate the action associ-ated with the word. This cue would immediately help the student identify the word. When these words became part of the students’ working memory, they no longer need to rely on the actions.

33

incorporate kinesthetic mnemonic cues for words that students struggle with. In the same way that we recommend actions for each of the simple sounds (see the action pages in the appendix, starting on page 203), we suggest that kinesthetic cues can be equally effective for teaching basic sight words. For example, you might teach students to point to themselves for the word me, point to a friend for the word you, or use a calling-towards-you action for the word come.

You might wish to involve your students in creating personalized, meaningful cues for various sight words. Remember that the action is intended to be a kinesthetic cueing system: the very act of pointing to themselves helps students recall the word me. Although, in this example, the action is linked to the meaning of the word, it is not necessary to attempt to match an action to the word’s meaning. For example, one group of students chose to tap their wrists whenever they came across the word the. The action was not linked to the meaning of the word (the word the has no tangible meaning), but the mnemonic was effective nonetheless.

Chapter 2: Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Alphabetic Coding

Table 2.6: Sight Words

again

always

are

because

blue

brown

by

come

do

down

eight

fi ve

for

four

gave

go

good

green

he

her

here

I

like

look

love

made

make

me

my

nine

no

now

once

one

orange

out

please

purple

said

saw

say

see

so

some

that

the

then

there

this

three

to

today

two

use

very

was

we

were

what

when

where

white

who

why

you

your

34 A Sound Approach

English is by no means a simple language to learn to read or spell. However, with proper instruction, students can successfully navigate the complexities of the alphabetic code to become expert decoders and encoders, and, consequently, enthusiastic readers.

3

Phonemic awareness, decoding skills, and encoding skills are crucial to a student’s overall literacy development. But, just because they are crucial does not mean that they have to be taught through boring,

drill-type exercises. In fact, quite the opposite is true. Our experiences have demonstrated that learning these skills can be fun and engaging for students. In this chapter, we include a variety of easy and effective activities designed to develop or reinforce your students’ phonemic awareness, decoding skills, and encoding skills. Some of the activities are auditory and do not include any reference to letter symbols. Others rely on letter symbols to help children make the jump from phonemic awareness to phonics.

PART 1: TEN PHONEMIC AWARENESS ACTIVITIES

Activity 1.1: Sounding Out Attendance

One of the easiest and most effective ways we have found to incorporate phonemic awareness instruction into our program on a regular basis is by sounding out the daily attendance. We recommend that you make a special class list for this activity, in which all the students’ names are spelled phonetically. This activity can be used with large or small groups.

Materials

• class attendance list (for teacher reference only); fi nd a reproducible master for an attendance list on pages 49 and 50

Instructions

Say each sound in a student’s name. Invite the entire group to call out the name and ask the student whose name is called to raise a hand. As students become more profi cient, ask them to listen for the sounds in their own names, and have each individual call out his or her name. For example:

Activities for Large Groups, Small Groups, or Pairs

36 A Sound Approach

Teacher I am going to say the sounds in someone’s name. /P/ -/au/ -/l/. Whose name is it?

Students Paul (Paul raises his hand.)

Continue with remaining names. Do this activity several days a week, or even daily, throughout the entire fi rst term.

At the beginning of the academic year, there will likely be several students in your class who struggle with this activity. That is why, for the fi rst few weeks, we recommend that you invite the entire class to call out the names rather than put individual students on the spot. It will become quickly apparent which children can hear the sounds of their names and which children have to rely on the responses of their classmates to cue them. After several weeks of sounding out attendance regularly, have only the student whose name is being called respond. There still may be some students who need extra support, and you can cue them by looking them directly in the eye and saying, “Are you ready? Your name is coming up next!”

Variations

The variations listed here are intended to teach phonemic awareness directly. Students need time to learn, practice, and consolidate each new skill in order to achieve mastery, therefore we recommend that you spend a minimum of three weeks on one activity before introducing the next. The variations are listed in approximate order of diffi culty—from simple to more complex—so we also recommend that you do the activities in the order presented. We strongly recommend that, before you engage in any activity that changes students’ names, you request permission to use their names in a silly way.

Variation 1: Omit the fi rst sound in each student’s name. For example:

Teacher I am going to say a name that is missing the first sound. Whose name is it? Auren.

Students Lauren

Variation 2: Omit the last sound in each student’s name. For example:

Teacher I am going to say a name that is missing the last sound. What is the last sound in the name Paul? Pau…?

Students: /l/

Variation 3: Change the fi rst sound of each student’s name to a familiar sound. For example:

Teacher I am going to change the first sound in someone’s name to /p/. Pusan. Whose name is it?

Students Susan

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

One year, Heather taught a stu-dent named Matthew. Matthew had very poor blending skills, but he was such a smart and resourceful child that he did not need Heather’s prompts to cor-rectly identify his name. Instead, he devised a system of his own. First, he paid careful attention to the order in which the names were called. (The names were read in the same order every day, so as to give children like Matthew an extra cueing system.) In addition, Matthew had a buddy, Luis, who helped him out. When Luis heard Matthew’s name, he would shout, “Matt! Matt! That’s you, Matt! Raise your hand! Matt, raise your hand!” While, ini-tially, Matthew had to rely on Luis’s prompts, within a few months, Matthew was able to blend the sounds in his name (and also everyone else’s!).

37

Variation 4: Instruct students to provide the fi nal sound in each name. For example:

Teacher I’m going to say a name and I want you to tell me the last sound in that name. Catherine.

Students /n/

Variation 5: Segment and count the sounds in each name. For example:

Teacher I’m going to say a name, and I want you to say each of the sounds with me. I am going to count the sounds on my fingers. Ready? The name is Tyler.

Teacher and Students /T/ /ie/ /l/ /er/ (The teacher extends one finger to represent each sound, then pinches her fingers back together.) Tyler

Teacher How many sounds does Tyler have in his name? (The teacher extends four fingers up to cue the students.)

Students four

An extension of this variation might be to invite students to graph the number of sounds in their names.

Variation 6: Instruct students to change the fi rst sound in their names. Our experience has demonstrated that, while most children enjoy such activities, a few fi nd it embarrassing. We substitute another variation for those students who prefer not have their names changed.

For example:

Teacher My first name is Heather. If I changed the first sound to /w/, my name would be Weather. What would your name be if you changed the first sound to /w/? Todd?

Todd Wodd

You can modify this activity as needed for students whose names begin with vowel sounds or adjacent consonants. For example, a child such as Arturo, whose name begins with a vowel, would not be able to substitute a / w/ for the fi rst phoneme in his name; it would not be phonetically legitimate. Instead, he could add the sound /w/ to the beginning of his name. Similarly, a child with a name like Claire would not be able to substitute /w/ for the fi rst sound in her name. She could, however, substitute the /w/ for the adjacent consonants c and l. Thus, Claire would become Waire.

Variation 7: Instruct students to count the sounds and provide the fi nal sound in each name. For example:

Chapter 3: Activities

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Often the spellings of names can be deceptive. A number of years ago, Heather had a student named Rachel in her kindergarten class. While Rachel never caused any trouble in the classroom, her name caused Heather a month’s worth of grief. At the beginning of the school year, when she fi rst started using taking attendance as in variation 6, Heather would sound out her name as follows: /r/-/ae/-/ch/-/e/-/l/. She knew that wasn’t quite right, and could tell by the faces of her students that it didn’t sound right to them either. Finally, after of month of frustration, Heather marched down the hall to Laura’s classroom and demanded that she segment the name Rachel. Laura res-ponded, “/r/-/ae/-/ch/-/l/”. “What about the e?” Heather asked. “What about the e?” was Laura’s response. “The e and the l spell the sound /l/.” Without even realizing it, Heather had been trying to impose a sound on the letter e, when, in fact, e didn’t “make” a sound. It was used in combi-nation with l, to spell the sound /l/. After “The Rachel Inciden,t” we both made a conscious effort not to think about how the name was spelled but, rather, to focus on the sounds that we heard.

38 A Sound Approach

Teacher I am going to count all the sounds in someone’s name except for the last one. I want you to tell me the last sound. Ready? Diane. /D/-/i/-/a/…(The teacher extends one finger for each sound as she says them and then holds up a fourth finger, indicating that the students are to respond.)

Students /n/

Variation 8: Have students provide the last two sounds in each name. For example:

Teacher I’m going to say the first few sounds in a name and, when I hold up my fingers, I want you to tell me the last two sounds. Watch my fingers. Ready? Lisa: /L/-/ee/…(The teacher extends one finger, indicating that the students are to respond.)

Students /s/ (The teacher extends a second finger, indicating that the students are to respond.)

Students /a/

Activity 1.2: Blending Categories

Blending categories is a game that is very effective for students who are just learning to blend and for students who are struggling with the concept of blending. This activity can be used with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Materials

• a list of categorized words; you may select a category of words based on a theme or a random category from the list on pages 51 and 52, or simply make up a list of your own

Instructions

Identify a category of words for your students and invite them to blend a word within that category. For example:

Teacher I’m going to say the sounds in the names of some animals. I want you to tell me the animals. The first one is /d/-/o-/g/. What animal it is?

Students dog

Continue with other words in the same category.

Extensions

Extension 1: Challenge students to think of words in a given category. Invite them to take turns segmenting the words and “being the teacher.”

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

After graphing the number of sounds in students’ names one afternoon in her kindergar-ten class, Heather gave her students the following instruc-tions: “If you have fi ve sounds in your name, go and line up for gym. If you have four sounds in your name, go and line up for gym.” The gym teacher, who was waiting at the class-room door, overheard and was impressed. “Wow!” she said. “I’m not sure that I even know how many sounds are in my name!” Without missing a beat, Roberto counted the sounds off on his fi ngers. “/L/-/ew/-/i/-/s/,” he said. “You have four sounds, Mrs. Lewis. You can line up for gym!”

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Blending categories is one of the fi rst games that Laura plays when she meets a new group of students. It is very effective in introducing them to blending without overwhelming them. After just one week of playing blending categories, students demonstrate increased confi -dence in blending three-, four-, and fi ve-phoneme words within any given category. This confi -dence prepares them for blending other, unrelated, words.

39

Extension 2: Ask students to act out or demonstrate a category of actions or emotions. For example, say, “Show me your /h/-/a/-/p/-/p/-/y/ face.”

Activity 1.3: Segmenting Categories

Segmenting is more diffi cult than blending, so it is best not to introduce your students to segmenting until they have experienced success at blending phonemes. Since segmenting can be challenging for some students, be sure to keep modeling both the word and the segmented form of the word until they are able to do it independently. This activity may be used with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Materials

• a list of categorized words that contain between three and fi ve phonemes (for teacher reference only); you may select a category of words based on a theme or a random category from the lists on pages 51 and 52, or simply make up a list of your own

Instructions

Identify a category of words for your students and invite them to segment a word within that category. For example:

Teacher I’m going to say each sound in a color word. The word is red. The sounds in the word red are /r/-/e/-/d/. (The teacher allows a one-second interval between each sound. She counts the sounds on her fingers as she says them aloud.) What word did I just say?

Students red (The teacher pinches her fingers together to visually cue the students.)

Teacher Now, say each sound in the word red.

Students /r/-/e/-/d/ (The teacher encourages her students to count the sounds on their fingers as they say the sounds aloud, then blend the sounds back together.) red

Continue with other words in the same category.

Extensions

Extension 1: As your students become profi cient, you may choose not to model the answer. For example, simply ask, “Who can tell us the sounds in a color word?”

Extension 2: Ask your students to act out an emotion (happy, sad, excited, surprised, angry). For example, “Say the sounds in the word happy with a happy face.” Or, “Say the sounds in the word sad with a sad face.”

Chapter 3: Activities

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Heather has been blending and segmenting with her daughter Claire since Claire could speak. Claire’s name, however, was problematic. Heather knew that, in theory, aire is not a single phoneme, but whenever she tried to break it down, it just did not sound right. So Heather treated aire as a sound chunk, segmenting her daughter’s name as /C/-/l/-aire rather than attempting to break up the fi nal chunk and risk distorting the pronunciation. The same held true for several of our kinder-garten and primary students who had the sound chunk aire in their names (Mary, Karen, Aaron). We fi rmly be-lieve that, in the rare instances when you come across a sound chunk that just does not sound right when broken down, it is more important to be true to the pro-nunciation of the name than to break it down “correctly” and risk distorting it. The irony of this tale is that, despite “incor-rect” modeling from her mother, once Claire was able to seg-ment her name independently, she segmented it into the four “correct” phonemes.

40 A Sound Approach

Activity 1.4: First/Last Sounds

The fi rst/last sounds game is effective for the handful of students who consistently leave off the fi rst or last sound when they are trying to blend. (For example, after listening to the sounds /s/-/a/-/t/, such a student may respond at.) This activity may be used with small groups or pairs.

Materials

• a list of three- and four-phoneme words that begin with the same sound or end with the same sound (for teacher reference only); use one of the lists provided on page 53, or simply make up a list of your own

Instructions

Tell your students that all the words that you will be segmenting begin (or end) with the same sound. Emphasize the target sound by saying it louder than the other sounds. For example:

Teacher I’m going to say sounds in some words that all begin with /sss/. Let’s practice saying the sound /sss/.

Students /sss/

Teacher Can you tell me what this word is? /sss/ /a/ /t/

Students sat

Continue with other words that begin (or end) with the same sound

Activity 1.5: I Spy

I spy is a fun and easy game for reinforcing students’ blending skills. It is a variation on the traditional game of I spy in which an object is described with clues such as colors or shapes. Here, the individual sounds in the word identifying the object are the clues. This game is perfect for transitional times (while waiting in line for the bus, just before the bell rings, for example) and can be used for large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Instructions

Pick out an object in the room and segment the word identifying it. For example:

Teacher I spy a /d/-/e/-/s/-/k/. What is it?

Students desk

Continue with other objects in the room.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

In one of her fi rst-grade classes, Laura had a student, Carlos, who consistently left off the fi rst sound of a word when blending. She was worried that Carlos would eventually struggle with decoding. After playing the fi rst/last sounds game for a few weeks, Carlos made noticeable improvement. One year later, Laura was able to report that Carlos was a happy, confi dent second grader who loved books and read fl uently with excellent compre-hension for his grade level.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

For several years, we team-taught in an area that had a high immigrant population, and many of the students’ names were not of English-language origin. One year, we looked at our class list and realized that there were only three names on it that we knew how to pro-nounce. The rest were totally unfamiliar to us. Undaunted, we spent the fi rst day of school asking students to pronounce their names for us. We would repeat after them, then inquire, “Am I saying it the right way?” Often it took three or four attempts to pronounce it to the child’s satisfaction. But, once we got it right, we immediately wrote it out phonetically and relied on our phonetic spellings (rather than standard spellings) to pronounce and segment the names properly.

41

Extensions

Extension 1: Invite individual students to “spy” and segment the word that identifi es something in the room. Or play a rhyming I-spy game. For example, say to the students, “I spy something in the room that rhymes with besk.” Students would respond with desk.

Extension 2: Use a poster or story book and invite students to “spy” and segment something in the picture.

Activity 1.6: Simon Sounds

The Simon-sounds game is always a huge hit with our students. Like the game of I spy, Simon sounds is perfect for times when you have just a few minutes to fi ll but want to keep your students engaged. This game may be used with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Instructions

Simon sounds is a variation of the game Simon says. Instruct your students to do a variety of tasks or exercises by sounding them out. For example, tell your students, “Do ten jumping /j/-/a/-/ck/-/s/.”

Extension

Invite individual students to play the part of Simon and sound out the instructions.

Activity 1.7: Round-Robin Rhyming

The game of round-robin rhyming helps students learn to substitute initial sounds and recognize word families. Before beginning, it is important that you model the question and answer so that your students have a good understanding of the expectations and can be successful. This game may be used with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Materials

• a list of rhyming words that contain three phonemes (for teacher use only); use one of the lists provided on page 54, or simply make a list of your own

Instructions

Have your students sit in a circle and give each student a turn to create a rhyming word. For example:

Teacher We’re going to play a rhyming game. The first word rhymes with at. Say at.

Chapter 3: Activities

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

We frequently play Simon sounds at the beginning of circle time to help the children settle down. For example, we might say in a quiet voice, “Simon says /l/-/oo/-/k/ at me. Put your hands in your /l/-/a/-/p/.” This game is also a favorite with our students during gym class. The children enjoy taking turns leading warm-up exercises as Simon.

42 A Sound Approach

Students at

Teacher I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with at and begins with the sound /s/. What is my word?

Students sat

Teacher (The teacher turns to the first student.) I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with sat and begins with the sound /c/. What is my word?

First Student cat

Teacher (The teacher turns to the second student.) I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with cat and begins with /h/. What is my word?

Second Student hat

Continue until every child in the group has had a turn.

Extensions

Extension 1: Without giving the initial sound, challenge students to think of the rhyming word. For example, “Can you think of a word that rhymes with sat?”

Extension 2: Invite students to play the role of teacher.

Extension 3: Increase the level of diffi culty by rhyming with four- or fi ve-phoneme words.

Activity 1.8: Following Directions by Blending

Following directions by blending is a fun and easy game that helps students improve their listening skills and their blending skills. It can be used with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Instructions

As teachers, we often give our students directions to follow. Instead of simply telling students what to do, try selecting several words to segment into individual sounds. For example:

Teacher I would like everyone to sit down at their /d/-/e/-/s /-/k/. (The teacher pauses to allow students time to sit down at their desks.) Now take out a piece of /p/-/a/-/p/-/er/.

Extension

Incorporate the following-directions-by-blending game into other curriculum areas, such as art, physical education, or math.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

The round-robin game enables teachers to tailor an activity to meet the needs of individual stu-dents. For example, if you know that Nathan is going to have diffi culty with rhyming, place him at the end of the circle where he is able to hear all the other rhyming words before he takes his turn. In addition, select a familiar initial sound (such as /s/) and over-emphasize it to ensure Nathan’s success.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

One particularly noisy day in Laura’s classroom, the stu-dents were having diffi culty settling down and listening to her. She instructed them to “/S/-/t/-/o/-/p/. /L/-/oo/-/k/. Listen.” Laura repeated this phrase several times. Her stu-dents were so enchanted by this new approach that they began taking turns at giving these instructions. They even added hand signals to reinforce their messages. First they put up a hand (stop), then they cupped their fi ngers, forming a circle around their eyes (look), and fi nally they cupped their hands around their ears (listen).

43

Activity 1.9: Storytelling by Blending Words

Story time is an important part of the daily school routine, as it provides an excellent opportunity for you to show students how their blending skills can be put into practice in the context of classroom reading experiences. When you are reading to your students, engage them in a storytelling-by-blending-words game. Simply segment one of the words in the story and ask the students to blend the word. We recommend that you start with simple three-, four-, and fi ve-phoneme words—and invite your students to say the word. But do not overdo it. A few words are more than enough. You want your students to be able to enjoy and appreciate the fl ow of the story. Use the storytelling-by-blending-words game with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Materials

• a story book

Instructions

When reading a story to your students, segment a few words from the story into their individual sounds. Pause to allow the students to blend the sounds and say the word. For example:

Teacher Once upon a /t/-/ie/-/m/ (The teacher pauses and looks at the students.)

Students time

Teacher in a far away /l/-/a/-/n/-/d/

Students land

Activity 1.10: Silly Songs and Rhymes

We recommend that you ask students’ permission before using their names for silly songs and rhymes. Use silly songs and rhymes with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Materials

• chart paper

• dry-erase marker

Instructions

Sing a familiar song or recite a familiar rhyme by substituting a familiar sound for the initial sounds of the words in the song or poem. For example, sing “Happy Birthday,” replacing all the initial sounds in the song with the

Chapter 3: Activities

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Primary students love singing silly songs or chanting silly rhymes. We found that, initially, students fi nd the activity quite challenging, but they typically experience success because they are so highly motivated. Eventually, we did link phone-mic awareness to phonics by writing the songs on chart paper so that our students could follow along.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

When Laura fi rst used the story-telling-by-blending game in a kindergarten class, her students were very enthusiastic about it. They loved to chime in with the blended forms of the words. Laura was so encouraged by their response, however, that she over-did it. She began seg-menting two or three words on every page. One day, Laura overheard a little voice in the back whispering in dread, “Oh no, she’s going to do that for the rest of the story!” Laura learned her lesson well. Now she limits the number of words segmented to three or four at the very beginning of the story.

44 A Sound Approach

sound /s/ (“Sappy Sirthday soo sou. Sappy Sirthday soo sou…” Write a few of these songs on chart paper, leaving out the initial consonants or leaving a space in front of a word that begins with a vowel. The chart can be laminated so that you or your students can change the initial sound with a dry-erase marker.

PART 2: SIX DECODING AND ENCODING ACTIVITIES

Activity 2.1: Sound Concentration

Use sound concentration with small groups or pairs.

Materials

• two identical sets of sound cards for the simple sounds; initially, select fi ve sounds (10 cards in total) that have been previously taught; as you teach more sounds, add them to the activity; fi nd reproducible masters for sound cards for the simple sounds on pages 55 to 59

Instructions

Prepare playing cards by cutting out the individual sound cards and laminating them. Mix up the cards and lay them face down. The fi rst player fl ips over one card, says the sound, then selects another card to fl ip over. If the sound represented on the second card is different from the fi rst, the child says the sound aloud and then replaces both cards, face down. If the cards match, the player picks up the two cards. Play continues until all the cards have been matched.

Extensions

You can make sound cards with capital letters or alternate spellings by using the reproducible blank sound cards found on page 61.

Extension 1: Mix upper- and lower-case letters on the sound cards. For example, if a student turns over a lower-case letter a, that student must match it with an upper-case letter A.

Extension 2: Include alternate spellings on sound cards. For example, include the letters c, k, ck, and cc on individual sound cards. Since all these spellings are used to represent the sound /k/, a match can be made by using any two of those cards.

Activity 2.2: Go Fishing for Sounds

Use the go-fi shing-for-sounds activity with small groups or pairs.

45

Materials

• two sets of sound cards for the simple sounds; initially, select fi ve sounds (10 cards in total) that have been previously taught; as you teach more sounds, add them to the game; fi nd reproducible masters for sound cards for the simple sounds on pages 55 to 59

Instructions

Prepare playing cards by cutting out and laminating the individual sounds. Deal three to fi ve cards to each player. Place the remaining cards face down in a go-fi sh pile. The fi rst player takes a turn by asking another player for a sound that matches one of their cards. For example, if Jamal had the letter t, he might say, “Lauren, do you have the sound /t/?” If Lauren has the letter t, she passes it to Jamal, who makes a match by laying down the matching cards. If Lauren does not have a match, she tells Jamal, “Go fi sh.” Jamal then draws a sound card from the go-fi sh pile. The next player then gets a turn. Play continues until one or all of the players have matched all of their cards.

Extensions

You can make sound cards with capital letters or alternate spellings by using the reproducible blank sound cards found on page 61.

Extension 1: Mix upper- and lower-case letters on the sound cards. When a student asks for the sound /a/, the other student can provide an upper- or a lower-case letter a.

Extension 2: Provide sound cards with familiar alternate spellings. For example, provide sound cards with the letters c, k, and ck. If a player has a c and asks for the sound /k/, a c, k, or ck could be used to make a match.

Extension 3: Instead of making matches, invite students to form words. For example, if a student has the sound cards /s/ and /u/, the student might ask for /n/ to form the word sun.

Activity 2.3: What’s in the Middle?

Use the what’s-in-the-middle activity with large groups, small groups, or pairs.

Materials

• a short-vowel cue card (each one contains all fi ve vowels) for each student; fi nd reproducible masters for short-vowel cue cards on page 60

Instructions

Use a short-vowel cue card to review the short vowel sounds. Tell the students, “I’m going to say a sound. I want you to repeat the sound after me

Chapter 3: Activities

46 A Sound Approach

and, with your fi nger, trace the letter that spells that sound: /a/.” Repeat this activity with the remaining short-vowel sounds on the short-vowel cue card.

Instruct the students: “I’m going to say a word, and I want you to listen for the sound in the middle. Then I want you to say that sound and trace the letter that spells it. The fi rst word is pat.” Students respond with /a/ and trace the letter a. Continue with other one-syllable words that contain short-vowel sounds, such as: puck, pack, peck; spin, spun, span; pet, pit, pot, pat, putt; fan, fun, fi n. Repeat this lesson as needed, until students are able to distinguish short vowel sounds quickly and accurately.

Modifi cation

If the what’s-in-the-middle activity is too diffi cult for some students, modify it as follows: After reviewing the short-vowel sounds, tell the students, “I’m going to say a word, and I want you to listen for the sound at the beginning. Then I want you to say that sound and trace the letter that spells it. The fi rst word is at.” Students respond with /a/ and touch the letter a. Continue with other two-phoneme words containing short vowel sounds. (Try using nonsense words such as ag, et, ip, og, and uf in addition to real words.)

Extensions

Extension 1: Once students become adept at recognizing the short-vowel sounds in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, increase the level of diffi culty by challenging them with CCVC, CCVCC, CVCC, or CCCVCC words.

Extension 2: Divide your class into groups of two to four students. Provide each group with a set of word cards for simple sounds (pages 62 to 81) and a short-vowel cue card (page 60). Instruct your students to take turns reading a word from a card, asking the other students to trace the letter on the cue card, then saying the sound.

Activity 2.4: Building Words

Use the building-words activity with small groups or pairs.

Materials

• make sound cards for each sound in three simple, decodable three-phoneme words; print the sounds in each word in the same color, for example: s, u, and n in yellow; n, e, and t in red; t, i, and p in blue; fi nd reproducible blank sound cards on page 61; laminate the cards

• a small, zip-sealed plastic bag

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Short vowel sounds are the most diffi cult sounds in the English language for children to dishinguish. Many at-risk readers have great diffi culty distinguishing between the sounds /i/ and /e/, or the sounds /o/ and /u/. We have had great success with this activity with both beginning and struggling readers. For beginning students, we would start by targeting only two or three vowel sounds (for exam-ple, /a/, /i/ and /o/). As the other short vowel sounds are formally introduced, we would begin to include them in the game. With struggling readers we would target only the sounds that they had trouble with (usually either /i/ and /e/ or /o/ and /u/). After a few weeks of practice with this game, we noticed a marked improvement in their ability to segment and correctly discrimi-nate between the short vowel sounds.

47

Instructions

Place all the sound cards in the plastic bag. Have students open the bag, sort the sound cards by color, build a word with each group of cards, then read the words. (For the letter combination n, e, and t, either the word net or ten would be acceptable.)

Variation

Have students build nonsense words and read them out loud.

Activity 2.5: Beat the Clock

Use the beat-the-clock activity with small groups or pairs.

Materials

• word cards for the simple sounds for previously taught sounds; fi nd reproducible masters for word cards for the simple sounds on pages 62 to 81

• a stopwatch or a watch or clock with a second hand

Instructions

Prepare playing cards by cutting out the individual sounds and laminating the cards. Make a pile. Tell your students that they need to read as many words as possible in one minute. Select the top card and have the fi rst student read the word. Select the second card and have the second student read the word. Continue with the other students in the group until the time is up. Count the number of cards read by the group. If time allows, challenge the students to read even more words within the same time period.

Extension

Once students have begun to master decoding as a primary strategy, include non-decodable (sight) words in the word pile. (For a discussion of sight words, see chapter 2, page 30.)

Activity 2.6: Tic-Tac-Toe

Have your students play tic-tac-toe in pairs.

Materials

• word cards for the simple sounds for previously taught sounds; fi nd reproducible masters for word cards for the simple sounds on pages 62 to 81

Chapter 3: Activities

48 A Sound Approach

• a tic-tac-toe game board; fi nd a reproducible tic-tac-toe game board on page 82

Instructions

Prepare playing cards by cutting out word cards and laminating them. Make a pile. The fi rst player draws a card and reads the word. If he reads the word correctly, he places the card, face up, on one of the spaces on the tic-tc-toe game board. If he reads the word incorrectly, he puts the card at the bottom of the word pile. The second player draws a card. If she reads the word correctly, she places it face down on one of the spaces on the tic-tac-toe game board. (Instead of using x’s and o’s, as in the traditional tic-tac-toe game, the students distinguish their own spaces by placing the cards either face up or face down.) Play continues until one student has placed three word cards in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally (to win the game), or until all of the spaces on the board are fi lled (in which case the game is a draw.)

Variation

Tic-tac-toe can be played with sound cards instead of word cards. Students select a sound card, say the corresponding sound, and place the card on the tic-tac-toe board. They continue as with word cards.

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ATTENDANCE LIST Phonetic Spelling of Name Segmented Sounds in Name

1. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

3. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

6. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

7. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

8. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

9. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

10. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

11. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

12. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

13. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

14. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

15. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

For Activity 1.1

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16. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

17. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

18. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

19. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

20. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

21. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

22. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

23. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

24. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

25. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

26. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

27. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

28. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

29. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

30. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

(page 2 of Attendance List)

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51

LISTS OF CATEGORIZED WORDS

FAMILY MEMBERSmotherfathersisterbrothergrandmagrandpaaunt unclecousin

BODY PARTSlegarmeareyemouthkneeelbowlipsheadtoes

FEELINGShappysadgladmadsillyfunnytiredthirstyupset

COLORSredgreenorangeblueblackwhitepinkbrownyellowpurple

CLOTHINGshirthatpantsskirtdressscarfsweaterjeansbeltmitts

CLASSROOM OBJECTSdeskpencilclockeraserbookpencrayonchalkchair

ITEMS FOUND IN THE KITCHENforkknifespoonfridgestovetablechairpanpotplatebowl

For Activities1.2 and 1.3

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DIRECTIONSupdownunderoverbesideabovenorthsouthwest east

FRUITS AND VEGETABLESappleorangepeachpearplumgrapefruitpeascornlettucebeans

ANIMALSdogcatmousecowhorsepigsheeplambhenchick

NUMBERSonetwothreefourfi vesixseveneightnineten

WEATHER WORDSsunnywindyrainyclearcoldhotwarmcoolsnowyicy

COMMUNITY HELPERSteachernursedoctorbakerbutcherpilot

(page 2 of Lists of Categorized Words)

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53

FIRST/LAST SOUNDS LISTS

WORDS THAT BEGIN WITH THE SAME SOUNDball can dog fi n girl henbat keep door fur green haybed corn dive fox gray hellobig cage date fi ne go hotbox camp dug fi ll gum hillbill cone damp fun give heart

jug lip me no pig runjar lime milk nap pet ratjoke lamb move never pour restjolt love map nose pat ripplejam like mask nibble pin ropejelly lost make name pole rule

sand take vote wind yo-yo zebrasoup teeth vine web yellow zoosun two vase water yacht zincstamp ten violet window yawn zerospill test very when yes zucchinistore time vest why yolk zone

WORDS THAT END WITH THE SAME SOUNDweb lick sad if leg bellbob lock lid off pig holerobe sick and tough rag sellrub pack fi nd rough dog goaltub pick old cuff rug telltab luck mud calf fog fi le

rim can zip kiss cat lovesum pen rope pass night fi venumb pin pipe fuss hat havelamb pine dip hiss bought hivehem main cape toss rat dovethem down hope mess bit gave

For Activity 1.4

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ROUND-ROBIN RHYMING LISTSat in it an sack sadsat bin bit fan pack hadcat fi n fi t man lack gladmat pin mit pan rack madhat tin pit tan back fadrat win sit ran tack bad

am pig cape love fi nlamb dig grape glove binham big nape dove pinSam fi g drape above tingram rig crêpe

For Activity 1.7

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SOUND CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

SOUND GROUP A

ps at

For Activities 2.1 and 2.2, and Lessons 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4

h in

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bSOUND CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

SOUND GROUP B

om r

c

For Activities 2.1 and 2.2, and Lessons 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4

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SOUND CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

SOUND GROUP C

d el g

For Activities 2.1 and 2.2, and Lessons 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4

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58 For Activities 2.1 and 2.2, and Lessons 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4

fSOUND CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

SOUND GROUP D

uj y

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SOUND CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

SOUND GROUP E

v wx z

For Activities 2.1 and 2.2, and Lessons 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4

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THE SHORT VOWELS

THE SHORT VOWELS

For Activity 2.3

a ei o

ua ei o

u

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REPRODUCIBLE BLANK SOUND CARDS

For Activities 2.2 and 2.4

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WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

at an sat sap sip pat pit pin

SOUND GROUP A

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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tap tan tip tin hat hit hip nip

SOUND GROUP A

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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nap past hint snap snip spit spin tint

SOUND GROUP A

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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on rot cab map ran man bit mob

SOUND GROUP B

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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bib Bob mop hot Ron rob pot cot

SOUND GROUP B

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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hop rip rat spot ramp cram crib brat

SOUND GROUP B

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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scrap stop cramp stomp stamp camp crab trap

SOUND GROUP B

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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get red sad hid lid got big bad

SOUND GROUP C

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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log leg dip let dog bed lot grip

SOUND GROUP C

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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brag slob grim plop glad help slap stem

SOUND GROUP C

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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sled slip grasp strap brand print grab grin

SOUND GROUP C

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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fun yet us jet yes fog up fin

SOUND GROUP D

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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jug jog run jab fit ram flag flip

SOUND GROUP D

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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fast frog glum slug jump yelp gulp drum

SOUND GROUP D

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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gum rut Gus just flat flint fact fund

SOUND GROUP D

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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film plug plum job mud jot flap flip

SOUND GROUP D

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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ax zip six Oz fax zig zag wet

SOUND GROUP E

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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wit vet van web fox wax box yam

SOUND GROUP E

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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yak wig zap tax vest rest wind exit

SOUND GROUP E

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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west twig vent wept wisp welt went wilt

SOUND GROUP E

WORD CARDS FOR THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

For Activities 2.5 and 2.6, and Lessons 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, and 1.6

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TIC-TA

C-TO

E GAM

E BOA

RD

For Activity 2.6

4

In this chapter, we present a series of easy-to-follow, logically sequenced lesson plans that are designed to teach phonemic awareness, decoding skills, and encoding skills. The chapter is divided into three parts. Part 1

contains systematic sound-symbol correspondences for the simple sounds: that is, those sounds that are represented by one-to-one mapping patterns (one letter = one sound). Once students have mastered blending, segmenting, decoding, and encoding two- to six-phoneme words containing one-to-one mapping patterns and they are able to differentiate short-vowel sounds, they will be ready to move on to the lessons in part 2.

Part 2 contains an introduction to the consonant digraphs sh, th, ch, and ck. Here, students will have opportunities to apply their blending and segmenting skills to words containing two-to-one mapping patterns (two letters used to represent one sound).

Part 3 introduces complex-vowel digraphs. Students will learn to recognize vowel-consonant-e spelling patterns (for example, o-consonant-e spells the sound /oa/) and combinations of letters that represent a single sound (for example, the letters igh, which represent the sound /ie/). They will also learn that the same sound can be represented a variety of different ways (for example, the sound /ay/ can be spelled a-consonant-e, ai, and ay).

This volume is intended to be a guide to linking phonemic awareness to decoding and encoding; however, we do not systematically introduce every possible spelling pattern of every single sound. Through our work with hundreds of students over the past decade and a half, we have determined that such an approach is neither necessary nor desirable. Once students master blending and segmenting and are taught spelling patterns for the various sounds (including consonant and vowel digraphs), they begin to develop a fundamental understanding of how the alphabetic code functions to represent speech sounds. Students learn that fl exibility in decoding and encoding is the key to success: if a word does not sound right, they learn

Lesson Plans for SmallGroups or Individuals

84 A Sound Approach

to try a different phoneme. If a word does not look right, they learn to try a different spelling pattern. As a teacher, you need to take advantage of “teachable moments” to fi ll in any gaps in your students’ knowledge. If, for example, a student were struggling with the word straight, you could simply cue him by saying, “The letters aigh spell the sound /ay/.” (See Lesson 1.7, pages 97 and 98)

The lessons we present here are appropriate for use with both small groups and individuals; thus, they are ideal for use with students who receive special-education or English-language support on a withdrawal basis, as well as for students who receive one-on-one tutoring. The small-group instructional format can also be incorporated into a classroom setting. You can easily divide students into groups of fi ve or six and direct the students to rotate through a series of language-based centers while you remain at one center and guide the students through the lessons. Alternately, you might adapt the lessons for use with an entire class.

You need not complete the lessons daily (but you could if you chose to). They can be highly effective when presented one to three times per week. Base your decision about frequency on the needs of your students and your own planning preferences.

In order to plan for appropriate instruction, it is important that you fi rst assess your students’ phonemic awareness and alphabetic coding skills. For students in kindergarten and the beginning of fi rst grade, such an assessment need not take the form of a test. Instead, you as the teacher can carefully observe individual students during whole-group phonemic awareness games and activities (such as those described in chapter 3). However, if you are unfamiliar with the types of activities recommended in this book, it will take time before you become profi cient at blending and segmenting confi dently. But, once you become comfortable with this approach to teaching reading and spelling, you will quickly pick up on which students are able to blend and segment simple, and even more complex, words. These are the children who are focused and fully engaged during phonemic awareness games. They look directly at you with eager, expectant faces and watch your mouth carefully, often forming the sounds along with you. They extend their fi ngers as they segment, and they pinch them together as they blend. They are the fi rst to call out answers in strong, clear, confi dent voices.

Then there are the students who will require extra modeling and support. They are likely the children who prefer to sit at the back of the room or on the fringes of the group. Their expressions may be blank or their brows furrowed in concentration. Their eyes may wander around the classroom or dart from you to their peers. They may watch their classmates carefully, to see how they are responding, then mimic the other children’s behaviors.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Jason was one of the best segmenters in Heather’s kinder-garten class. One afternoon during journal-writing time, Jason approached Heather and asked, “Mrs. Kenny, how do you spell the sound /oo/?” Knowing that the spelling of sounds can be word-specifi c, Heather asked, “What word are you spelling?” “Book,” replied Jason. “The sound /oo/ in the word book is spelled oo,” Heather responded. Jason hurried back to his seat and resumed writing, spelling the word boock.

Although he had not spelled the word “correctly,” Jason dem-onstrated a sophisticated under-standing of encoding. He was astute enough to recognize /oo/ as a sound and ask how to spell that sound. In addition, he demonstrated an understanding of digraphs by recording the letters oo without question and using the letters ck (a common spelling pattern for /k/ in the fi nal position). Although the rest of the class was not yet ready for this infor-mation, Heather took advantage of a “teachable moment” and introduced Jason to the complex spelling pattern of a new sound. Thereafter, his journal entries were peppered with oo’s when-ever he came across a word containing the sound /oo/.

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 85

These are the students who typically call out the answers half a beat behind the others, or not at all. They are the children who must rely on the rest of the group to shout out their names during daily attendance activities before they feel confi dent raising their own hands. You can make these observations discreetly during the course of the activities and note them quietly.

If you feel that a more formal assessment is in order, consider using the Phonemic Awareness Assessment provided on pages 107 to 110. Although this assessment may be used selectively as a pretest with students as young as six, we feel that it is generally more appropriately administered after students have had some phonemic awareness instruction. Remember that many children in the early primary grades may have had little or no experience blending and segmenting. And some of these younger students may be unfamiliar with concepts such as sound, word, and nonsense word.

For students in fi rst grade and for struggling decoders in second grade and beyond, it is crucial that teachers assess both the phonemic awareness and the alphabetic coding skills of the students before starting instruction. Teachers need a thorough understanding of what these students know (or do not know) and can do (or cannot do). The Phonemic Awareness Assessment and the Alphabetic Coding Assessment (see pages 111 to 115) are both quick and easy to administer, and they provide valuable information that can help you plan appropriate interventions. Heather administered these assessments to Carolyn, a student with whom she worked privately.

Carolyn was a soft-spoken, yet articulate, student who began working with Heather at the beginning of her eighth-grade year. Though she was obviously intelligent, Carolyn had been diagnosed with a learning disability and was reading several grade levels below eighth grade. At their fi rst meeting, Heather administered three assessments. First, Heather asked Carolyn to read several paragraphs of an appropriate text. When it became evident that Carolyn struggled to identify words correctly, Heather administered two more assessments—versions of the Phonemic Awareness Assessment and the Alphabetic Coding Assessment. (See fi gures 4.1 and 4.2 for Carolyn’s responses to the two tests. Note that the student responses indicated in these fi gures are based on a composite profi le of a student. Although the responses do not show actual student work, they refl ect the abilities of actual eight-grade students.)

Note that Carolyn’s responses in part 1 (Blending) of the Phonemic Awareness Assessment indicate that, while she was able to blend and segment simple vowel-consonant (VC) and consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, she had diffi culty with words that contained adjacent consonants in the fi nal position, or in the initial and fi nal positions. Carolyn’s inability to blend and segment sounds hindered her ability to decode and encode, making it

86 A Sound Approach

diffi cult for her to identify unknown words when reading or to recall correct letter sequences when spelling.

The results of Carolyn’s Alphabetic Coding Assessment were also a cause for concern. While she breezed through part l (Consonants), Carolyn experienced diffi culty discriminating between the short vowel sounds /e/ and /i/, not surprising, since they are the most diffi cult sounds in the English language to distinguish between. Struggling readers frequently have diffi culty distinguishing between /e/ and /i/ or between /o/ and /u/.

As well, when Carolyn responded to items such as those in parts 3 (Consonant Diagraphs), and 4 (Vowel Diagraphs), she was unable to correctly identify the sounds that were represented by graphemes such as wr and eigh. Instead, she provided words that contained the corresponding spelling patterns (write and eight respectively). Obviously, Carolyn recognized the letter combinations from words in her sight-word vocabulary. What she did not recognize was why those letter combinations were present in those

Figure 4.1: Carolyn's responses to the Phonemic Awareness Assessment

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 87

words. She did not know (and had never been taught) that wr is an acceptable spelling pattern for the sound /r/ or that eigh represents the sound /ay/. To Carolyn, these spelling patterns were not patterns at all; they were arbitrary sequences of letters that had to be memorized in the correct order.

The information that these last two assessments provided enabled Heather to build an effective program for Carolyn. For 30 minutes, once a week, Heather focused on developing Carolyn’s phonemic awareness skills and teaching Carolyn to discriminate between /i/ and /e/. She also taught her how to blend and segment words containing adjacent consonants. As well, Heather systematically introduced Carolyn to complex spelling patterns (such as those in part 3 of this chapter), and she helped Carolyn practice decoding and encoding words containing all of these patterns. By the end of the academic year, Carolyn could quickly and accurately decode almost any word that she encountered, and she was able to read and comprehend grade-level text. Her spelling skills, while not perfect, had also dramatically improved.

(Figure 4.1 continued)

88 A Sound Approach

PART 1: SEVEN LESSONS FOR TEACHING THE SIMPLE SOUNDSThe seven lessons provided in this section are fun and easy to implement. Follow them sequentially and you will systematically teach your students how to decode (read) and to encode (spell) words containing simple sounds (one-to-one mapping patterns). We introduce the simple sounds in a series of fi ve sound groups. You will fi nd these sound groups, the word lists for each lesson, and the order in which they are to be taught in the reproducible master entitled Order for Teaching the Simple Sounds, which is found on pages 116 and 117. The lessons in this section are equally effective with beginning readers and struggling readers—those who have not developed strong decoding and encoding skills.

Start with lesson 1.1 to teach the fi rst sound and repeat it for each of the remaining sounds in the sound group (A). Once you have introduced all of the sounds in the sound group, have the students engage in the remaining six lessons. Repeat this procedure for the remaining sounds in the sound group.

Figure 4.2: Carolyn's responses to the Alphabetic Coding Assessment.

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 89

We recommend that you follow the order presented in Order for Teaching the Simple Sounds, pages 116 and 117.

Do not rush through the lessons. Rather, provide ample time for your students to learn, practice, and master the skills. Repeat the lessons as needed. Pay particular attention to your students’ abilities to discriminate among the short-vowel sounds, and make sure that they have mastered the ability to blend and segment words with adjacent consonants in both the initial and fi nal positions. Once your students have mastered simple one-to-one mapping patterns and they can quickly and accurately blend, segment,

(Figure 4.2 continued)

90 A Sound Approach

decode, and encode single-syllable words with up to six phonemes, they will be ready to tackle the more complex elements of the alphabetic code found in parts 2 and 3.

For kindergarten and early fi rst-grade students, most of whom have not yet learned all the sound-symbol correspondences, we recommend that you follow the lessons sequentially, as presented here, starting with lesson 1.1. Many older readers and spellers, and even some who are struggling, may already have mastered the sound-symbol correspondences for the simple sounds. In such cases, it would be appropriate to merely undertake a quick review of the sounds (to ensure that students are pronouncing them correctly), then skip to lesson 1.2. In all cases, however, we strongly recommend that you introduce the kinesthetic cues (see the action pages provided in the appendix, pages 203 to 228) for any sound-symbol correspondences that students have not yet mastered, particularly the short-vowel sounds.

Once you have completed all seven lessons for a sound group, you may wish to assess your students’ mastery of the skills they have been practising. Use the reproducible masters entitled Phonemic Awareness and the Alphabetic Coding assessments found on pages 107 to 115.

Lesson 1.1: Phonemic Awareness Training

Complete lesson 1.1 for each sound in sound group A (s, a, t, p, h, i, n) before continuing with the rest of the lessons.

Materials

• one action page (placed in a highly visible spot in the classroom) for the sound being taught and all previously introduced sounds

• a pictures page for the sound being taught (one copy per student)

• a words-and-pictures page for the sound being taught (one copy per student)

• story starters for the sound being taught (for the teacher)

• riddles for the sound being taught (for the teacher)

Find reproducible masters for action pages, pictures pages, and words-and-pictures pages in the appendix at the end of this book. Find story starters and riddles in the appendix, pages 190 to 202.

Instructions

Step 1: Review each sound/symbol taught to date. For example, show the symbol s on the action page:

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 91

Teacher (The teacher points to the letter s.) Which sound does the letter s spell?

Students /s/

Continue with all other sounds-symbols taught to date.

Step 2: Introduce the new sound-symbol. Show students the action page for the new sound. Demonstrate the sound-action combination. You may choose to have very young students dramatize a story associated with the sound. For example:

Teacher Imagine that you have a pet snake named Sammy. You go up to your room and notice that the snake is missing. You look under the chair. No Sammy. You look in the closet. No Sammy. Then you hear “ssss.” (The teacher waves her arms in the air like a snake as she says the sound.) You look under your bed, and there is /s/, /s/, Sammy.

Repeat the sound-action combination several times with students.

Step 3: Play a riddle game for the sound being taught. Distribute one pictures page per student. Introduce the vocabulary on the page by asking riddles. For example:

Teacher I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /s/. I am a ball of fire and gas. I shine brightly in the sky. Plants and animals need me to grow. What am I?

Students sun (The students point to the sun.)

Repeat with other riddles for the remaining words.

Step 4: Play a rhyming game. Still referring to the pictures pages, make up words or non-words that rhyme with the words on the page. For example:

Teacher I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with car.

Students star (The students point to a picture of a star.)

Teacher I’m thinking of a word that rhymes with fider.

Students spider

Repeat with remaining words on the pictures pages.

Step 5: Have students blend the sounds in words. Still referring to the pictures page, segment the sounds in two-to-four-phoneme words and ask students to blend them. For example:

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

While teaching kindergarten and fi rst grade, Laura noticed that her students loved riddles. She allowed her students to make up their own riddles and present them to their classmates. It was fun, highly motivating, and an effective way to pro-mote both oral language and higher-level thinking skills.

92 A Sound Approach

Teacher I am going to say each sound in a word. I want you to say the word and touch the picture: /s/ /u/ /n/. (The teacher allows a one-second interval between sounds.)

Students sun (The students touch a picture of the sun.)

Repeat using other pictures on the page that contain two to four sounds. For a challenge, invite students to blend words containing more than four phonemes.

Step 6: Have students segment the sounds in words. Still referring to the pictures page, say a two-to- four-phoneme word and instruct them to segment each sound in that word. Provide modeling and assistance as needed. For example:

Teacher I am going to say each sound in the word sun. I want you to hold up one finger for each sound: /s/ /u/ /n/. (The students each extend one finger for each sound.) How many sounds are in the word sun?

Students three

Teacher Now, say each sound in the word sun.

Students /s/ /u/ /n/ (The students each extend one finger for each sound.) sun (pinching fingers together)

Repeat using other pictures on the page that contain two to four sounds.

Step 7: Have students record the letter that spells the sound on the pictures page. For example, invite them to print the letter symbol s three times on the line beside each picture, saying /s/ aloud as they print the letter.

Distribute the words and pictures pages and invite students to circle the letter that spells the target sound in the words. For example:

Teacher Circle the letter that spells the sound /s/ in spider. (The teacher says the sound but not the letter name.)

Students /s/ (The students circle the letter s.)

Repeat with other words on the page.

Extensions

Extension 1: As students learn more sound-symbol combinations, you may choose to have them identify other, previously taught, sounds. Have them circle the medial and/or fi nal sounds on the words-and-pictures page. For example:

Teacher What is the second sound in the word star: /s/…?

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 93

Students /t/

Teacher Circle the letter that spells the sound /t/ in the word star.

Extension 2: Introduce complex spellings of sounds. For example:

Teacher What is the last sound in the word star: /s/-/t/…?

Students /ar/

Teacher There are two letters that spell the sound /ar/ in the word star. Which two letters spell the sound /ar/?

Students ar

Teacher Circle the letters ar in the word star.

Repeat lesson 1.1 for each sound in the sound group before moving on to the remaining six lessons.

Lesson 1.2: Word Building

Materials

• a plastic zip-lock bag containing sound cards for each of the sounds in the sound group being taught and sound cards for those previously taught (one per student)

• word cards for the sound group being taught

• chalk and chalkboard

• a pencil and some paper for each student

Find sound cards for the simple sounds and word cards for the simple sounds as reproducible masters at the end of chapter 3, pages 55 to 81. Find the word list for lesson 1.2 on pages 116 and 117.

Instructions

Step 1: Review each sound-symbol taught to date. Model the spellings of words. For example:

Teacher Let’s count the sounds in the word at: /a/-/t/, at. (The teacher extends one finger for each sound.) What is the first sound you hear in the word at?

Students /t/ (The teacher records the letter t on the chalkboard while saying the sound /t/.) (The teacher pinches her fingers to indicate to the students that they should blend the word.) at

Teacher What is the next sound you hear in the word at? /a/…?

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

As a teacher with over 30 years of experience, Laura fi nds that old habits die hard. Early in her career, she would ask her stu-dents, “What sound does this letter make?” Since letters do not make sounds (they represent sounds), it would have been more effective to ask, “What sound does this letter spell?” Although the difference between these two questions appears subtle, the second question is better because it helps give students a solid understanding of how the alphabetic code really works. It took several years of reading a script before Laura learned to automatically ask, “What sound does this let-ter spell?”

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Over the years, we have received many great tips from teachers who have participated in our workshops. One teacher suggested that every time you ask your students to segment the sounds in a word, have them blend the word back together. It gives students twice the parctice!

94 A Sound Approach

Students /t/ (The teacher records the letter t on the chalkboard while saying the sound /t/.)

Repeat using other words from the word list.

Step 2: Have students build words with sound cards. For example:

Teacher Using your sound cards, build the word at. Say each sound out loud as you build the word.

Students /a/-/t/ (The students place the appropriate card on the table as they say each sound.) at

Repeat using other words from the word list.

Step 3: Have students record words. Provide each student with a pencil and some paper and instruct them to print out each sound in the words that they hear. For example:

Teacher Tell me each sound you hear in the word at.

Students /a/-/t/, at

Teacher Spell the word at. Say each sound out loud as you read it. (The students record the word, saying each sound aloud as it is recorded.)

Repeat using other words from the word list.

Lesson 1.3: Manipulating Sounds

Materials

• a plastic zip-lock bag containing sound cards for the simple sounds for each of the sounds taught to date (one per student)

• the word list for lesson 1.3

• chalk and chalkboard

• a pencil and some paper for each student

Find sound cards for the simple sounds and word cards for the simple sounds as reproducible masters at the end of chapter 3, pages 55 to 81. Find the word list for lesson 1.3 on pages 116 and 117.

Instructions

Step 1: Review each sound-symbol taught to date. Spell the sounds in the fi rst word on the list. For example:

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Many of the teachers who have attended our seminars report that the most exciting part of emphasizing sounds when teaching children how to read is listening to students while they are recording their sounds on paper. The room is abuzz with /s/’s and /t/’s and /a/’s. It is music to a teacher’s ears!

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 95

Teacher I’m going to spell the word sat. What are the sounds in the word sat: /s/ /a/ /t/? (The teacher records each sound on the chalkboard.) What word did I spell?

Students sat

Teacher If that spells sat, what sound do we need to change to make the word hat: /h/ (the teacher touches the letter s); /a/ (the teacher touches the letter a); /t/ (the teacher touches the letter t). What sound do we need to change?

Students /s/

Teacher We need to change the /s/ to a…

Students /h/ (The teacher erases the letter s and replaces it with an h.)

Teacher Read the new word slowly as I touch each sound.

Students h-a-t

Continue with the other words from the word list in the order in which they appear.

Step 2: Have students build the words. For example:

Teacher Let’s say the sounds in the word sat: /s/-/a/-/t/. Use your sound cards to build the word sat. Say each sound out loud as you build the word. (The students select the appropriate sound cards and build the word, saying each sound out loud as they place the sound card on the table.) If that spells sat, let’s spell hat. What sound do we need to change?

Student the /s/ to an /h/

Teacher Change the word sat to hat. (The students replace the letter s with the letter h.) Touch each sound as you say the new word.

Students hat

Continue with the other words from the word list in the order in which they appear.

Lesson 1.4: Reinforcement Games for the Simple Sounds

Materials

• refer to chapter 3 for materials for to the games listed in this lesson

96 A Sound Approach

Instructions

Have students play games in pairs or in small groups to develop and consolidate their skills by playing one of the following games:

• go fi shing for sounds (see page 44)

• sound concentration (see page 44)

• beat the clock (see page 47)

• tic-tac-toe (see page 47)

• what’s in the middle? (see page 45)

Lesson 1.5: Blending and Segmenting Using Word Cards

Materials

• word cards for the simple sounds for the sound group being taught; fi nd reproducible masters for these at the end of chapter 3, pages 62 to 81

Instructions

Step 1: Have students play a blending game. Prepare playing cards by cutting out the individual word cards and laminating the cards. Make a pile and select a card from the pile. Turn to the fi rst student, but do not let the student see the card. For example, if the word is hit:

Teacher I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and I want you to tell me what the word is: /h/ /i/ /t/

Student hit

Continue with other students, picking a new word from the pile for each student. Students may wish to take turns drawing from the word pile and asking another student to blend the sounds to form the word.

Step 2: Have students play a segmenting game: Make a pile of the word cards for the simple sounds and then select a word card from the pile. Turn to the fi rst student, but do not let the student see the card. For example, if the word is pit:

Teacher Tell me each sound in the word pit.

Student /p/ /i/ /t/

Continue with other students, using new words from the word pile. Students may wish to take turns drawing from the pile and asking another student to segment the sounds in the word.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Of all the lessons we have used, the lesson containing reinforcement games was the most popular. Playing games gives students a chance to rein-force and consolidate their knowledge of the alphabetic code in both a fun and mean-ingful way.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

The lesson containing blending and segmenting using word cards gave our students the opportunity to “be the teacher,” an activity that they loved. After some initial modeling, we were always surprised and delighted to fi nd how quickly the students picked up “teacher language.”

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 97

Lesson 1.6: Spelling Practice for the Simple Sounds

Materials

• word list for the sound group being taught (select words from the appropriate lists on pages 116 and 117)

• a pencil and a piece of paper for each student

Instructions

Give your students a spelling “test.” (This activity could be an actual test, intended to assess students’ mastery of the new sound, or it could be an opportunity to provide students with extra practice. In the latter case, you might wish to have the entire group segment the words aloud before the students record them.) Call out one word at a time, encouraging the students to segment it out loud and then record the sounds, saying each sound aloud as they record it. For example:

Teacher Tell me the sounds in the word in.

Students /i/-/n/, in

Teacher Spell each sound in the word in. Say each sound out loud, then record the letters, saying each sound aloud as they record the corresponding letter.

Continue with eight to 10 other words on the word list. As your students’ profi ciency increases, you may choose to increase the number of words.

Lesson 1.7: Building Fluency for the Simple Sounds

Materials

• a variety of reading materials, including fi ction, nonfi ction, poems, songs, readers’ theater scripts, graphic novels

• bins for organizing and storing texts

Instructions

Have students practice reading texts at their independent levels. Encourage them to select texts based on their individual interests and independent reading levels. Provide them with 15 to 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to read independently. If a student fi nishes one text within the time period, invite him or her to reread the same text or select another. (For additional activities designed to promote reading fl uency, see Rasinski.)

It is important to encourage students to use their decoding skills in the classroom context when they are reading actual books or stories, not just

98 A Sound Approach

contrived texts. When they encounter unfamiliar words or sounds, encourage them to make a phonetic approximation and then attempt to self-correct, based on context cues. (For a discussion of phonetic approximations, see pages 26, 30, and 31.) By attending to the meaning of words, your students will improve their self-monitoring skills, which can ultimately improve their reading comprehension.

If, however, a student still struggles with a word, provide the sound unit with which he or she is struggling. For example, if a student comes across the word right but has not been taught that the letters igh represent the sound /ie/ as in pie, simply tell him or her the sound:

Teacher Say the sounds in that word out loud.

Student /r/

Teacher The letters igh spell the sound /ie/.

Student /r/ - /ie/ - /t/. Right.

Once students have completed lessons 1.1 to 1.7 for the sound group, you might wish to assess you students’ mastery of the concepts by administering the Phonemic Awareness Assessment and the Alphabetic Coding Assessment for the appropriate sound group (fi nd these as reproducible masters on pages 107 to 115). If the students are ready, move on to the next sound group, or, if your students have completed the lessons for all the sound groups, move on to the lessons in part 2.

PART 2: FOUR LESSONS FOR TEACHING CONSONANT DIGRAPHSIn part 1, we provided lesson plans that teach students simple elements of the alphabetic code: one-to-one mapping patterns. Students learned that an individual phoneme can be represented by a single letter, and they learn to blend, segment, decode, and encode words that employ one-to-one mapping patterns. In part 2, we provide lesson plans that introduce two-to-one mapping patterns (two letters = one sound): consonant digraphs. Students learn that a single sound can be represented by more than one letter (for example, the letters sh are used to spell the sound /sh/), and they practice decoding and encoding words containing those digraphs. Since these spelling patterns (sh, ch, th, and ck) are rarely problematic for students, we have devoted only four lessons to teaching each of the consonant digraphs. Let your students guide you. If they appear to need additional practice, repeat the lessons as needed. Complete the four lessons for the sound /sh/, then repeat them, in order, for the digraphs /ch/, /th/, and /ck/.

Once you have completed the lessons for all four consonant digraphs, you might wish to assess your students’ mastery of the skills they have been

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 99

practicing. Use the reproducible master entitled Assessment for Consonant Digraphs found on pages 133 and 134.

Lesson 2.1: Spelling the Consonant Digraph

Materials

• a spelling-the-sound sheet for the consonant digraph being taught (one copy per student)

• a copy of the spelling-the-sound sheet for the sound being taught reprinted on chart paper or on an overhead transparency

• chart paper or overhead transparency

Find reproducible masters for spelling-the-sound sheets for the consonant diagraphs between pages 135 and 146.

Instructions

Step 1: Introduce the new sound. For example:

Teacher We are going to learn to read and spell words that contain the sound /sh/. Let’s practice saying the sound /sh/.

Students /sh/

Teacher (The teacher refers to the chart paper or overhead.) The first word on our list is ship. Listen to the sounds in the word ship: /sh/ /i/ /p/. Now, say the word ship.

Students ship

Teacher Let’s say the sounds in the word ship.

Students and Teacher /sh/ /i/ /p/, ship

Continue with remaining words on the word list.

Step 2: Have students segment each word and record each sound in the word on the blank lines found beside each word on the spelling-the-sounds sheet. You may wish to have students circle or underline the spelling of the new sound in each word.

Lesson 2.2: Reinforcement Games for Consonant Digraphs

Materials

• multiple sets of word cards for the consonant digraph being taught; fi nd reproducible masters for these between pages 135 and 146

100 A Sound Approach

• additional materials, as described in chapter 3, related to the games listed in this lesson

Instructions

Prepare playing cards by cutting out the individual word cards and laminating them. Provide students with an opportunity to develop and consolidate their skills by giving them the word cards for the new sound and having them play one of the following games. Students may play the games in pairs or in small groups.

• go fi shing for sounds (see page 44)

• sound concentration (see page 44)

• beat the clock (see page 47)

• tic-tac-toe (see page 47)

• what’s in the middle? (see page 45)

Extension

Place these games at a literacy center for student use during free-choice-activity time.

Lesson 2.3: Spelling Practice for Consonant Digraphs

Materials

• a word list for the consonant digraph being taught (compile the word list from words on the word cards for the consonant digraph being taught) (for teacher reference only); fi nd reproducible masters for these between pages 136 and 146

• a pencil and some paper for each student

Instructions

Give your students a spelling “test.” (This activity could be an actual test, intended to assess students’ mastery of the new sound, or it could be an opportunity to provide students with extra practice. In the latter case, you might wish to have the entire group segment the words aloud before they record them.) Call out one word at a time, encouraging students to segment the word as they record the sounds saying each sound aloud as they record it. For example:

Teacher Spell each sound in the word ship.

Students /sh/-/i/ /p/ (the students record the word ship), ship

Continue with the remaining words on the spelling-the-sound sheet.

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 101

Lesson 2.4: Building Fluency for the Consonant Digraphs

Materials

• a variety of reading materials, including fi ction, nonfi ction, poems, songs, readers’ theater scripts, graphic novels

• bins for organizing and storing texts

Instructions

Have students practice reading and rereading texts at their independent levels. (For additional activities designed to promote reading fl uency, see Rasinski.)

Once students have completed lessons 2.1 to 2.4 for each of the consonant digraphs, you might wish to assess your students’ mastery of the concepts by administering the Assessment for Consonant Digraphs (pages 133 and 134). If the students are ready, move on the the lessons in part 3.

PART 3: SIX LESSONS FOR TEACHING VOWEL DIGRAPHSIn part 2, we introduced the concept that a single sound could be represented by more than one letter (a digraph). In part 3, we show that a single sound can be represented in a variety of different ways, and we introduce common spelling patterns for each vowel sound or sound unit. For example, the sound /ay/ can be spelled with the letters ai (as in the word wait), the letters ay (as in the word day), and the letters a–consonant–e (as in the word cake). The lessons in this section build upon the blending and segmenting skills that students have already mastered, and they directly teach students how to apply their knowledge of decoding and encoding to words that contain complex sounds and spelling patterns. We recommend that you present lessons 3.1 to 3.6 for each sound and introduce the sounds in the following order: /er/, /or/, /ar/, /ay/, /ee/, /ie/, /oa/, /ue/, /oo/ (as in book), /ow/ (as in cow), /oi/, /oo/ (as in soon), and the sound units air and ear. (While we recognize that air and ear are not individual phonemes, students—and teachers—can experience diffi culty segmenting them. We have therefore included these sound units in the lessons.)

Lesson 3.1: Spelling the Vowel Digraph

Materials

• word cards for vowel digraph being taught (one set per group); fi nd reproducible masters for these between pages 148 and 187

102 A Sound Approach

• a spelling-the-sound sheet for the vowel digraph being taught, reprinted on chart paper or an overhead transparency; fi nd these as reproducible masters between pages 147 and 185

• chart paper or overhead transparency

Instructions

Step 1: Introduce the new sound. For example:

Teacher (The teacher refers to the spelling-the-sound sheet on chart paper or overhead transparency.) This week, our spelling words all contain the sound /er/. Let’s practice saying the sound /er/.

Students /er/

Teacher I am going to count the sounds in the word her. Listen: /h/ /er/. Now, say the word her. Let’s say the sounds together: /h/ /er/, her.

Continue with the remaining words on the chart.

Figure 4.3: Sample showing how students record words on a spelling-sounds sorting mat

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

At the end of Laura’s very fi rst phonemically driven spelling lesson in a fi rst-grade classroom, a parent volunteer approached Laura with a strong concern about the spelling program. Since the phonemically driven approach was so different from the traditional “rote” method of teaching spelling that she knew, the parent wondered what Laura was doing. Laura quickly explained her rationale and invited the parent to observe the lessons. By the end of the fi rst week, the parent was a convert, declaring that the approach made perfect sense.

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 103

Step 2: Introduce multiple spelling patterns. For example:

Teacher The sound /er/ can be spelled with the letters, er, ur, and ir. Let’s look at our spelling list (refer to chart paper or overhead). The sounds in the word her are /h/-/er/.

Step 3: Record the sounds in the word her beside the word on the chart paper or overhead transparency (see sample, fi gure 4.3).

Teacher In the word her, the sound /er /is spelled with the letters e and r. Now let’s listen to the sounds in the word sir: /s/ /ir/. (The teacher segments and records sir beside the word sir on the chart paper.) Now, say the word sir.

Students sir

Teacher Let’s count the sounds together. (The teacher extends one finger for each sound as she counts.)

Students /s/ /ir/, sir

Arrange students in small groups and provide each group with a set of word cards for the vowel digraph being taught. Instruct the students to take turns drawing a card, reading the word, and leading the group in segmenting each sound in the word.

Lesson 3.2: Sorting by Spelling Patterns

Materials

• word cards for the vowel digraph being taught (one set per group); fi nd reproducible masters for these between pages 148 and 187

• spelling-sounds sorting mat (one per group); fi nd this as a reproducible master on page 188 (if you wish, use a photocopier to enlarge it to 11" x 14")

• a copy of the spelling-the-sound sheet for the vowel digraph being taught, reprinted on chart paper or overhead transparency

Instructions

Have students sort cards according to the spelling of the sounds. Prepare playing cards by cutting out the individual word cards and laminating them. Make a pile. Pass out a spelling-sounds sorting mat to each student and instruct them as follows:

Teacher Today we’re going to sort words according to the spelling of our new sound. Which new sound did we learn?

Student /er/

104 A Sound Approach

Teacher Right! Let’s write that sound at the top of the page. (The teacher writes /er/ in the appropriate place on his or her sorting mat, and one student in each group does the same on their copy.) The sound /er/ can be spelled with er, ir, or ur. Let’s write in those spellings. (The teacher writes each of the spelling patterns at the top of his or her column, and one student in each group does the same on their copy.)

Draw the top card from the pile of word cards and hold it up so that the students can see it. For example:

Teacher The first word is her. The sounds in the word her are /h/ /er/. How is the sound /er/ in the word her spelled?

Student e…r

Teacher I’m going to put the word her under the heading er on my sorting mat. (The teacher writes her in the appropriate column.) Now I want you to use your word cards to sort each word according to the way the sound /er/ is spelled.

Have your students work in pairs or small groups to sort the word cards according to the spelling of the selected sound and place the words in the appropriate column on their sorting mats. For additional practice, encourage students to orally segment and read each word aloud before sorting.

Lesson 3.3: Segmenting and Recording Words

Materials

• a spelling-the-sounds sheet for the vowel digraph being taught (one copy per student); fi nd reproducible masters for these between pages 147 and 184

• spelling-sounds sorting mat (one copy per student); fi nd a reproducible master for this on page 188

Instructions

Have students record words according to the spellings of the sounds. Provide each student with a spelling-the-sound sheet for the appropriate sound and a spelling-sounds sorting mat. Instruct students to (1) read the list of words; (2) segment each word into individual sounds; (3) spell the sounds on the lines beside each word; (4) circle the letters that spell the new sound in each word; (5) write each word in the appropriate column on the sorting mat.

Note that the sounds /ay/, /ie/, and /ue/ can be spelled with vowel-consonant-e. For example, in the word cape, the /ay/ is spelled with a-consonant-e. After segmenting and recording the word cape, draw an arrow from the e to the a

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

Students particularly enjoy play-ing the sound-sorting game. This “hands-on” activity is appeal-ing and equally benefi cial to visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 105

underneath the word and explain that the e and a work together to spell the sound /ay/.

Lesson 3.4: Reinforcement Games for Vowel Digraphs

Materials

• multiple sets of word cards for vowel digraphs for the sound being taught; fi nd reproducible masters for these between pages 148 and 187

• spelling-sounds sorting mat (one per group); fi nd a reproducible master for this on page 188

• additional materials, as described in chapter 3, related to the games listed in this lesson

Instructions

Have students play games in pairs or small groups. Provide students with an opportunity to develop and consolidate their skills by using word cards for the new sound to play one of the following games:

• go fi shing for sounds (see page 44)

• sound concentration (see page 44)

• beat the clock (see page 47)

• tic-tac-toe (see page 47)

• what’s in the middle? (see page 45)

• sound-sorting game

To set up the sound-sorting game, have students use a spelling-sounds sorting mat to sort word cards according to the way the sound is spelled. Have students work in pairs, each taking a turn asking another student to segment words, reading the words, and placing them in the correct columns.

Extension

Place the games at a literacy center so that students may play them during free-choice activity time.

Lesson 3.5: Spelling Practice for Vowel Digraphs

Materials

• spelling-sounds sorting mats with heading labeled according to the three spellings of the sound being taught (one map per student); fi nd a reproducible master for the sorting mat on page 188

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

What student doesn’t like play-ing games? The word games listed in lesson 3.4, which most students are already familiar with, provide them with prac-tice that is fun and meaningful. Once we taught our students how to play (and it didn’t take long), we placed the game materials at a working-with-words activity center for student to use during free-choice activ-ity time.

106 A Sound Approach

• word cards for the vowel digraphs being taught (for teacher reference only); fi nd reproducible masters for these between pages 148 and 187

Instructions

Give your students a spelling “test,” which could be used as an actual test to assess students’ mastery of the new sound. Sort word cards into separate piles according to the way the vowel digraph is spelled. From the fi rst pile, select a word and dictate it. For example:

Teacher The first four words in your spelling test contain the sound /er/, spelled with the letters er. The first word is her. Say each sound in the word and spell it under the heading er. (The students record the word her in the appropriate column.)

Continue with the remaining words in which the sound /er/ is spelled with the letters er.)

Teacher The next three words in your spelling test contain the sound /er/, spelled with the letters ur. The first word is fur. Say each sound in the word and spell it under the heading /ur/. (The students record the word under the appropriate column.)

Continue with the remaining words in which the sound /er/ is spelled with the letters ur. Repeat the procedure for words in which the sound /er/ is spelled with the letters ir.

This lesson can also be used to assess students’ mastery of the new sound and to assess students’ encoding and decoding skills before moving on to a new sound. Once students have practiced spelling the words on the spelling-sounds sorting mat, have each student read the words back to you.

Lesson 3.6: Building Fluency for the Vowel Digraphs

Materials

• a variety of reading materials including fi ction, nonfi ction, poems, songs, readers’ theater scripts, graphic novels

• bins for organizing and storing texts

Instructions

Have students practice reading and rereading texts at their independent levels. (For additional activities designed to promote reading fl uency, see Rasinski.)

In order to assess their ability to use decoding skills in the context of reading authentic texts, you might wish to ask individual students to read aloud to you. Such an assessment could also indicate whether students need additional instruction and practice in specifi c spelling patterns.

RESEARCH TO PRACTICE

One afternoon, Laura told her students that she would be giv-ing them their spelling test the next day. One eager student raised his hand to ask if he could take the list home to study. However, “studying” at home for the test would have been counter-productive. Chances are that Mom or Dad would have insisted that he merely recite the names of the letters and not attend to the sounds in the words.

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS ASSESSMENT

The Phonemic Awareness Assessment is composed of two parts: a blending section and a segmenting section. It is intended to be administered to students on an individual basis and may not be appropriate for use with young students who have diffi culty with the concept of a nonsense word.

When administering the assessment, do not allow the student to see the words. Sit in a quiet area, facing the student. Be sure that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth.

Prior to administering each part of the assessment, state the instructions and provide several practice items. Be sure that the child understands the task before administering the test items. Accept the students’ fi rst response as correct or incorrect. If a student misses fi ve consecutive items, discontinue that part of the assessment.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART 1: BLENDING When administering the practice and test items, articulate each sound distinctly, leaving a one-second interval between each sound. If the student responds correctly, place a checkmark on the corresponding line. If the response is incorrect, record the student’s response.

To practise, say to the student, “I’m going to say some sounds that make up a nonsense word, then I’m going to say the word. The sounds are /a/-/p/:ap. Now you try one. I’ll say the sounds, and you say the word. Remember, these are not real words. /a/-/p/.” The student responds, “ap.”

ADDITIONAL PRACTICE ITEMS CORRECT RESPONSE

/o/-/g/ og

/u/-/f/ uff

Students with well-developed blending skills should score above 90 percent on this part of the assessment. Students who score below 90 percent may benefi t from additional instruction in this area.

Phonemic Awareness Assessment (page 1)

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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RECORDING SHEET FOR PART 1: BLENDING

Test Items Student Response Correct Response

1. /r/-/ee/ ________________ ree

2. /e/-/k/ ________________ eck

3. /l/-/i/-/g/ ________________ lig

4. /p/-/a/-/b/ ________________ pab

5. /s/-/m/-/ie/ ________________ smy

6. /g/-/l/-/o/-/g/ ________________ glog

7. /t/-/u/-/s/-/p/ ________________ tusp

8. /d/-/a/-/c/-/t/ ________________ dact

9. /c/-/l/-/or/-/s/ ________________ clors

10. /f/-/r/-/i/-/m/-/p/ ________________ frimp

11. /b/-/l/-/ee/-/n/-/d/ ________________ bleend

12. /s/-/t/-/r/-/oo/-/ck/ ________________ strook

Student’s score ________ divided by 12 = ________ x 100 = ___________%

Phonemic Awareness Assessment (page 2)

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR PART 2: SEGMENTING When administering the practice and test items, pronounce each nonsense word distinctly. Request that the student repeat the nonsense word before segmenting it. If necessary, correct the student’s pronunciation before allowing the student to segment the word. Instruct the student to leave a one-second “space” between each sound. For each sound (phoneme) that the student correctly segments, place a checkmark on the corresponding line. If a student partially segments a word, give checkmarks only for those phonemes that are articulated individually. (For example, if a student segments the nonsense word spim as /sp-/i/-/m/, only the fi nal two phonemes would be scored as correct.)

To practise, say to the student, “I’m going to say a nonsense word, then I’m going to say each sound in that word. The word is ip: /i/-/p/. Now you try it. Say ip, then say each sound in the word ip.” The student responds, “ip: /i/-/p/.”

ADDITIONAL PRACTICE ITEMS CORRECT RESPONSE

ibe /ie/-/b/

ork /or/-/k/

Students with well-developed segmenting skills should score above 90 percent on this part of the assessment. Students who score below 90 percent may benefi t from additional instruction in this area.

Both parts of this assessment begin with simple items (VC and CVC words) and progress to more complex tasks (CCVC, CVCC, CCVCC, CCCVC words). Although raw scores can be calculated, we recommend that you pay closer attention to the types of errors that the student makes. Many students can blend and segment simple VC or CVC words but experience diffi culty with the adjacent consonant sounds in CCVC, CVCC, or CCCVCC words. Other students may be successful at blending but have diffi culty segmenting. Testing data can assist you in planning instruction that will address the needs of individual students.

Phonemic Awareness Assessment (page 3)

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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RECORDING SHEET FOR PART 2: SEGMENTING

TEST ITEMS STUDENT RESPONSE CORRECT RESPONSE

1. ep ___ - ___ /e/-/p/

2. tay ___ - ___ /t/-/ay/

3. lat ___- ___ - ___ /l/-/a/-/t/

4. jick ___ - ___ - ___ /j/-/i/-/ck/

5. spip ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /s/-/p/-/i/-/p/

6. drot ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /d/-/r/-/o/-/t/

7. bisp ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /b/-/i/-/s/-/p/

8. hant ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /h/-/a/-/n/-/t/

9. ployd ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /p/-/l/-/oy/-/d/

10. grost ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /g/-/r/-/o/-/s/-/t/

11. clind ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /c/-/l/-/i/-/n/-/d/

12. strump ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ - ___ /s/-/t/-/r/-/u/-/m/-/p/

Student’s score ________ divided by 46 = ________ x 100 = ___________%

Phonemic Awareness Assessment (page 4)

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ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENT Instructions to the Teacher

The Alphabetic Coding Assessment is intended to be administered to students individually. Provide the student with the student copy of the assessment. Say to the student, “I’m going to show you some letters, and I want you to tell me the sounds that the letters spell. If you don’t know the answer, don’t guess. Just say ‘pass’.”

Point to the fi rst item in part 1. Ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” Allow the student no more than three seconds to respond before moving on to the next item. If the student does not respond within the three-second time limit, score the item as incorrect. If the student responds with the name of a letter, reply, “Yes, that’s the name of the letter, but what sound does it spell?” Indicate correct responses on the recording sheet with a checkmark on the corresponding line. If the student responds incorrectly, you may wish to record the incorrect response on the line provided. For your reference only, key words are provided on the examiner’s copy to indicate correct responses.

If a student demonstrates strong familiarity with part 1 of the assessment, proceed to part 2, and so on. Or, you may choose to administer only the section(s) of the assessment that is an area of concern. If a student misses fi ve consecutive items, it may be advisable to discontinue the assessment. Note that this assessment is not intended to include the entire alphabetic code. Rather, it is intended to provide examiners with information relating to a student’s knowledge of common spelling patterns (graphemes). (A grapheme is a letter or group of letters that spell a single sound.)

SCORINGA response is scored as correct only if the student correctly identifi es an individual sound that is represented by the letter(s). If the student responds with a word containing that sound, the response is scored as incorrect. This assessment provides valuable information about a student’s ability to recognize graphemes. We recommend that, instead of calculating a raw score, you use this assessment to determine the letters and letters combinations that the student cannot yet identify. This information can then be used to plan appropriate instructional interventions.

Alphabetic Coding Assessment (page 1)

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ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENT Student Copy

PART 1: CONSONANTS

d h l p s w z b f j

m r v y c g k n t xPART 2: SHORT-VOWEL SOUNDS

a e i o u PART 3: CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

ck sh ch th u wr kn ph tch wh gh PART 4: VOWEL DIGRAPHS

or er ea ir oa ur ee ie ayey ou ai oi ow oy oo oe auew aw ui igh ough augh eigh

Alphabetic Coding Assessment (page 2)

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ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENTTeacher Recording Sheet

PART 1: CONSONANTS Although some letters are used to represent more than one sound (for example the letter g can spell /g/, as in girl; or /j/, as in giraffe), this section is intended to determine whether students can identify the most common sound-symbol correspondences. For your reference only, key words are noted next to the item to indicate the correct response. Provide each student with his or her own Alphabetic Coding Assessment copy (page 112). While pointing to the fi rst item in part 1, ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” The student responds, “/d/”.

d ___ (dog) h ___ (hat) l ___ (like) p ___ (pie) s ___ (sip) w ___ (win)

z ___ (zoo) b ___ (boy) f ___ (far) j ___ (jam) m ___ (man) r ___ (ran)*

v ___ (van) y ___ (yam) c ___ (cat) g ___ (girl) k ___ (king) n ___ (new)

t ___ (tall) x ___ (ax)**

* /er/ is not an acceptable response for the letter r.** Technically, the letter x does not represent a simple one-to-one mapping pattern, since it is a single-letter symbol that is used to represent two phonemes: /k/ and /s/. However, as this does not present problems for students with respect to reading, we have chosen to treat x as a simple sound.

PART 2: SHORT VOWEL SOUNDS This section is intended to assess the student’s ability to identify short vowel sounds. If the student responds with a long vowel sound (which is also the letter name), instruct the student to provide you with the sound that the letter usually spells (the short vowel sound). While pointing to the fi rst item in part 2, ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” The student responds, “/a/” as in cat.

a ___ (cap) e ___ (get) i ___ (bit) o ___ (pot) u ___ (cup)

Alphabetic Coding Assessment (page 3)

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(Teacher Recording Sheet continued)

PART 3: CONSONANT DIGRAPHSWhile pointing to the fi rst item in part 3, ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” The student responds, “/ck/”.

ck ___ (pack) sh ___ (shop) ch ___ (chip)

th ___ (thin; then)* qu ___ ( uit) wr ___ (/r/ as in write)

kn ___ (/n/ as in know) ph ___ (/f/ as in telephone) tch ___ (/ch/ as in catch)

wh ___ (which) gh ___ (/g/ as in ghost; or /f/ as in cough)

*The letters th are commonly used to spell two different sounds: /th/ as in thin, and /th/ as in then. Either response is correct. You may wish to circle the corresponding key word to indicate the student’s response.

PART 4: VOWEL DIGRAPHSThis section is intended to assess the student’s ability to identify complex mapping patterns. Many of these graphemes (spelling patterns) are used to spell more than one sound. When appropriate, more than one correct response is indicated. Students need provide only one correct response, which the examiner can note by circling the corresponding key word.

In some (rare) instances, a student may provide an alternate response that could be scored as correct. If the student responds with a phoneme that is not listed next to the digraph, ask the student to give you an example of a word that contains that sound or spelling pattern. For example if a student stated that the letters ou spelled the sound /oa/, and was able to provide the word soul as an example, the response would be scored as correct. If the student was unable to provide an appropriate example, the response would be scored as incorrect. While pointing to the fi rst item in part 4, ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” The student responds, “/or/”.

or ___ (/or/ as in fork; /er/ as in work)

er ___ (/er/ as in verb)

ea ___ (/ee/ as in meat; /e/ as in bread; /ay/ as in great)

ir ___ (/er/ as in fir)

oa ___ (/oa/ as in coat)

Alphabetic Coding Assessment (page 4)

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(Teacher Recording Sheet continued)

ur ___ (/er/ as in fur)

ee ___ (/ee/ as in meet)

ie ___ (/ie/ as in pie; /ee/ as in thief)

ay ___ (/ay/ as in day)

ey ___ (/ee/ as in monkey; /ay/ as in they)

ou ___ (/ow/ as in couch; /u/ as in touch; /oo/ as in troupe)

ai ___ (/ay/ as in paid; /e/ as in said)

oi ___ (/oy/ as in oil)

ow ___ (/ow/ as in cow; /oa/ as in snow)

oy ___ (/oy/ as in toy)

oo ___ (/oo/ as in soon; /oo/ as in look)

oe ___ (/oa/ as in doe; /oo/ as in shoe)

au ___ (/o/ as in August)

ew ___ (/oo/ as in crew; /ue/ as in cue)

aw ___ (/o/ as in paw)

ui ___ (/oo/ as in ruin)

igh ___ (/ie/ as in sigh)

ough ___ (/o/ as in thought; /oo/ as in through; /oa/ as in thorough)

augh ___ (/o/ as in taught)

eigh ___ (/ay/ as in eight)

Alphabetic Coding Assessment (page 5)

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ORDER FOR TEACHING THE SIMPLE SOUNDS

SOUND GROUP A WORD LIST: /s/, /a/ (as in cat), /t/, /p/, /h/, /i/ (as in pin), /n/at an sat sap sip

pat pit pin tap tan

tip tin hat hit hip

nip nap past hint snap

snip spit spin

Words for lesson 1.3 (in this order): sat, hat, hit, pit, pin, tin, tan, tap, tip, hip

SOUND GROUP B WORD LIST: /b/, /o/ (as in hot), /m/, /r/, /c/ (as in cat) on rot cab map ran

man bit mob bib bob

mop hot Ron rob pot

cot hop rip rat spot

ramp cram crib brat scrap

stop cramp stomp stamp camp

Words for lesson 1.3 (in this order): pot, rot, rat, ran, man, map, mop, mob, bob, bib

SOUND GROUP C WORD LIST: /d/, /e/ (as in bet), /l/, /g/ (as in go) get red sad hid lid

got big bad log leg

dip let dog bed lot

grip brag slob grim plop

glad help slap stem sled

slip grasp strap brand print

Words for lesson 1.3 (in this order): red, bed, bet, get, let, leg, log, dog, dig, big

For Lessons 1.1 to 1.7

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(Order for Teaching the Simple Sounds continued)

SOUND GROUP D WORD LIST: /f/, /u/ (as in fun), /j/, /y/ (as in yet) fun yet us jet yes

fog up fi n jug jog

run jab fi t ram fl ag

fl ip fast frog glum slug

jump yelp gulp drum gum

rut Gus just fl at fl int

fact fund fi lm plug plum

Words for lesson 1.3 (in this order): fl ag, fl ap, fl ip, fl it, slit, slip, slap, slam, clam, cram, crab

SOUND GROUP E WORD LIST: /v/, /w/, /x/, /z/ ax zip six Oz fax

zig zag wet wit vet

van web fox wax box

yam yak wig zap tax

vest rest wind exit west

twig vent wept wisp welt

Words for lesson 1.3 (in this order): vest, vent, sent, went, west, welt, wilt

For Lessons 1.1 to 1.7

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENTS FOR SOUND GROUP A

Teacher Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGEOn the student recording sheet, point to each letter-symbol individually. Ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” Circle each correct response below:

s a t p h i n

Score _______ divided by 7 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: BLENDINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and I want you to tell me the word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth. Say each sound in the following words distinctly, allowing a one-second interval between each sound. Do not allow the student to see the words. Record the student’s fi rst response as correct (✓) or incorrect (X).

/a/-/t/ _____ /h/-/a/-/t/ _____ /s/-/i/-/p/ _____ /i/-/n/ _____

/s/-/i/-/t/ _____ /n/-/a/-/p/ _____ /p/-/a/-/s/-/t/ _____

/s/-/n/-/i/-/p/ _____ /h/-/i/-/n/-/t/ _______ /n/-/i/-/p/-/s/ _____

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: SEGMENTINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say a word. I want you to repeat the word then tell me each of the sounds in that word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth but cannot see the words on your sheet. Pronounce each word distinctly. Do not allow the student to see the words.

it _______ an _______ nip _______ tin _______

pit _______ spit _______ hint _______ pins _______

snap _______ taps _______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

Assessments for Sound Group A (page 1)

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(Teacher Recording Sheet continued)

DECODINGAsk the student to read each of the following words for student recording sheet:

it _______ in _______ nip _______ pit _______

nap _______ pin _______ hit _______ tap _______

pins _______ spin _______ hint _______ sits _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

ENCODINGAsk the student to spell each of the following words on the student recording sheet:

at _______ sip _______ pan _______ sit _______

tan _______ pan _______ sips _______ past _______

hint _______ spat _______ taps _______ snap _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

CALCULATING OVERALL SCORE Blending _______ Segmenting _______

Decoding _______ Encoding _______

Total score ________ divided by 51 = ________ x 100 = __________%

Assessments for Sound Group A (page 2)

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Student Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGE

s a t p h i n

DECODING

it in nip pitnap pin hit tap pins spin hint sits

ENCODING

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

Assessments for Sound Group A (page 3)

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENTS FOR SOUND GROUP B

Teacher Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGEOn the student recording sheet, point to each letter-symbol individually. Ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” Circle each correct response below:

b o m r c

Score _______ divided by 5 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: BLENDINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and I want you to tell me the word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth. Say each sound in the following words distinctly, allowing a one-second interval between each sound. Record the student’s fi rst response as correct (✓) or incorrect (X).

/c/-/o/-/t/ _______ /r/-/i/-/p/ _______ /c/-/a/-/b/ _______ /m/-/a/-/p/ _______

/r/-/a/-/n/ _______ /b/-/i/-/t/ _______ /h/-/o/-/p/ _______ /b/-/r/-/a/-/t/ _______

/s/-/t/-/o/-/m/-/p/ _______ /r/-/a/-/m/-/p/ _______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: SEGMENTINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say a word. I want you to repeat the word then tell me each of the sounds in that word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth but cannot see the words on your sheet. Pronounce each word distinctly.

on _______ man _______ cot _______ rob _______

cram _______ brim _______ stop _______ stamp _______

scrap _______ cramp _______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

Assessments for Sound Group B (page 1)

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(Teacher Recording Sheet continued)

DECODINGAsk the student to read each of the following words from the student recording sheet:

mop _______ hot _______ bib _______ pop _______

rat _______ ran _______ Ron _______ spot _______

crib _______ cram _______ stomp _______ scrap _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

ENCODINGAsk the student to spell each of the following words on the student recording sheet:

on _______ map _______ bit _______ pot _______

rob _______ rip _______ hot _______ brat _______

ramp _______ cramp _______ strap _______ stamp _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

CALCULATING OVERALL SCOREBlending _______ Segmenting _______

Decoding _______ Encoding _______

Total score ________ divided by 49 = ________ x 100 = __________%

Assessments for Sound Group B (page 2)

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Student Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGE

b o m r c

DECODING

mop hot bib poprat ran Ron spot crib cram stomp scrap

ENCODING

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

Assessments for Sound Group B (page 3)

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENTS FOR SOUND GROUP C

Teacher Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGEOn the student recording sheet, point to each letter-symbol individually. Ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” Circle each correct response below:

d e l g

Score _______ divided by 4 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: BLENDINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and I want you to tell me the word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth. Say each sound in the following words distinctly, allowing a one-second interval between each sound. Record the student’s fi rst response as correct (✓) or incorrect (X).

/g/-/o/-/t/ _____ /r/-/e/-/d/ _____ /s/-/a/-/d/ _____ /l/-/i/-/d/ _____

/l/-/e/-/t/ _____ /d/-/o/-/g/ _____ /s/-/l/-/o/-/p/ _____

/g/-/l/-/a/-/d/ _____ /s/-/l/-/e/-/d/ _____ /g/-/r/-/a/-/s/-/p/ _____

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: SEGMENTINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say a word. I want you to repeat the word then tell me each of the sounds in that word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth but cannot see the words on your sheet. Pronounce each word distinctly.

get _______ dip _______ log _______ bed _______

bad _______ big _______ leg _______ grip _______

drop _______ spend _______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

Assessments for Sound Group C (page 1)

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(Teacher Recording Sheet continued)

DECODINGAsk the student to read each of the following words from the student recording sheet:

bed _______ lot _______ get _______ big _______

dog _______ dip _______ slob _______ stem _______

help _______ plop _______ brand _______ slap _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

ENCODINGAsk the student to spell each of the following words on the student recording sheet:

red _______ lid _______ got _______ bad _______

leg _______ log _______ let _______ hid _______

grip _______ brag _______ sled _______ stem _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

CALCULATING OVERALL SCOREBlending _______ Segmenting _______

Decoding _______ Encoding _______

Total score ________ divided by 48 = ________ x 100 = _________

Assessments for Sound Group C (page 2)

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Student Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGE

d e l g DECODING

bed lot get bigdog dip slob stemhelp plop brand slapENCODING

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

Assessments for Sound Group C (page 3)

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENTS FOR SOUND GROUP D

Teacher Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGEOn the student recording sheet, point to each letter-symbol individually. Ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” Circle each correct response below:

f u j y

Score _______ divided by 4 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: BLENDINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and I want you to tell me the word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth. Say each sound in the following words distinctly, allowing a one-second interval between each sound. Record the student’s fi rst response as correct (✓) or incorrect (X).

/f/-/u/-/n/ _____ /y/-/e/-/t/_____ /j/-/u/-/g/ _____ /j/-/o/-/g/ _____

/j/-/a/-/b/ _____ /f/-/i/-/t/ _____ /y/-/e/-/l/-/p/ _____

/d/-/r/-/u/-/m/ _____ /f/-/i/-/l/-/m/ _____ /f/-/l/-/i/-/n/-/t/ _____

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: SEGMENTINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say a word. I want you to repeat the word then tell me each of the sounds in that word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth but cannot see the words on your sheet. Pronounce each word distinctly.

us _______ up _______ jet _______ yes _______

fog _______ fi n _______ run _______ fl ag _______

glum _______ glint_______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

Assessments for Sound Group D (page 1)

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(Teacher Recording Sheet continued)

DECODINGAsk the student to read each of the following words from the student recording sheet:

fog _______ fi n _______ jog _______ jug _______

run _______ fl ip _______ fast _______ slug _______

gulp _______ just _______ fact _______ stump _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

ENCODINGAsk the student to spell each of the following words on the student recording sheet:

fun _______ yet _______ gum _______ jut _______

fi t _______ yes _______ fl at _______ frog_______

drum _______ jump_______ fi lm _______ plug _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

CALCULATING OVERALL SCOREBlending _______ Segmenting _______

Decoding _______ Encoding _______

Total score________ divided by 48 = ________ x 100 = __________%

Assessments for Sound Group D (page 2)

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Student Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGE

f u j y

DECODING

fog fi n jog jugrun fl ip fast sluggulp just fact stump

ENCODING

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

Assessments for Sound Group D (page 3)

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PHONEMIC AWARENESS AND ALPHABETIC CODING ASSESSMENTS FOR SOUND GROUP E

Teacher Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGEOn the student recording sheet, point to each letter-symbol individually. Ask the student, “What sound does this letter spell?” Circle each correct response below:

v w x z

Score _______ divided by 4 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: BLENDINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and I want you to tell me the word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth. Say each sound in the following words distinctly, allowing a one-second interval between each sound. Record the student’s fi rst response as correct (✓) or incorrect (X).

/f/-/o/-/x/ _____ /z/-/i/-/p/ _____ /t/-/a/-/x/ _____ /z/-/i/-/g/ _______

/w/-/a/-/x/ _____ /b/-/o/-/x/ _____ /v/-/e/-/n/-/t/ _______

/w/-/i/-/n/-/d/ _____ /e/-/x/-/i/-/t/ _____ /w/-/e/-/l/-/t/ _______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

PHONEMIC AWARENESS: SEGMENTINGSay to the student, “I’m going to say a word. I want you to repeat the word then tell me each of the sounds in that word.” Sit in a way that the student can hear you clearly and see your mouth but cannot see the words. Pronounce each word distinctly. (Note that the letter x represents two phonemes. For example, students can segment the word ax as “/a/-/x/” or /a/-/k/-/s/”. Either response is acceptable.)

Oz _______ ax _______ six _______ yam _______ fax _______

vest _______ wept _______ twig _______ wisp _______ welt_______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

Assessments for Sound Group E (page 1)

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(Teacher Recording Sheet continued)

DECODING Ask the student to read each of the following words from the student recording sheet:

zip _______ zap _______ six _______ fax _______

van _______ wig _______ swept _______ crept_______

wind _______ wisp _______ went _______ swift_______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

ENCODINGAsk the student to spell each of the following words on the student recording sheet:

ax _______ Oz _______ zig _______ zag _______

wet _______ wit _______ web _______ vet_______

fox _______ twig_______ west _______ wept _______

Score _______ divided by 12 = _______ x 100 = _______%

CALCULATING OVERALL SCOREBlending _______ Segmenting _______

Decoding _______ Encoding _______

Total score ________ divided by 48 = ________ x 100 = __________%

Assessments for Sound Group E (page 2)

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Student Recording Sheet

ALPHABETIC CODE KNOWLEDGE

v w x z

DECODING

zip zap six faxvan wig swept creptwind wisp went swiftENCODING

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

Assessments for Sound Group E (page 3)

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ASSESSMENT FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHSTeacher Recording Sheet

Note: This assessment may be completed after /sh/, /th/, /ch/, and /ck/ have been taught.

DECODINGAsk the student to read each of the following words from the student recording sheet:

fi sh _______ much _______ math _______ duck _______

shelf _______ chest _______ then _______ crash_______

track ________ thick ________

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

ENCODINGAsk the student to spell each of the following words on the student recording sheet:

rash _______ chip _______ path _______ pack_______

this_______ brick _______ cloth _______ shift _______

branch _______ thump_______

Score _______ divided by 10 = _______ x 100 = _______%

CALCULATING OVERALL SCORETotal of both scores _______ divided by 20 = _______ x 100 = __________%

Assessment for Consonant Digraphs (page 1)

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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Student Recording Sheet

DECODING

fi sh much math duckchest then crash shelf track thick ENCODING

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________ _______________________ _______________________

_______________________

Assessment for Consonant Digraphs (page 2)

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEET The Consonant Digraph sh

ship _____ _____ _____

shot _____ _____ _____

shut _____ _____ _____

cash _____ _____ _____

rash _____ _____ _____

fi sh _____ _____ _____

shop _____ _____ _____

wish _____ _____ _____

crash _____ _____ _____ _____

shelf _____ _____ _____ _____

shaft _____ _____ _____ _____

shift _____ _____ _____ _____

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WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

ship shot shut cash rash fish wish crash

SPELLING THE SOUND /sh/

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shelf shaft shin shop sash dish gash shift

SPELLING THE SOUND /sh/

WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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138

SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Consonant Digraph ch

much _____ _____ _____

chop _____ _____ _____

chat _____ _____ _____

chip _____ _____ _____

chin _____ _____ _____

chest _____ _____ _____ _____

bunch _____ _____ _____ _____

lunch _____ _____ _____ _____

pinch _____ _____ _____ _____

chimp _____ _____ _____ _____

branch _____ _____ _____ _____ _____

brunch _____ _____ _____ _____ _____

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much chop chat chip chin chest bunch lunch

SPELLING THE SOUND /ch/

WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

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pinch branch chap champ chimp munch hunch brunch

SPELLING THE SOUND /ch/

WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________©

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEET The Consonant Digraph th

bath _____ _____ _____

math _____ _____ _____

path _____ _____ _____

with _____ _____ _____

thin _____ _____ _____

that _____ _____ _____

then _____ _____ _____

cloth _____ _____ _____ _____

fi lth _____ _____ _____ _____

thump _____ _____ _____ _____

month _____ _____ _____ _____

thrust _____ _____ _____ _____ _____

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bath math path with thin that then cloth

SPELLING THE SOUND /th/

WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

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thump thrust moth this month throb sloth filth

SPELLING THE SOUND /th/

WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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144

SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEET The Consonant Digraph ck

pick _____ _____ _____

duck _____ _____ _____

sock _____ _____ _____

pack _____ _____ _____

luck _____ _____ _____

stick _____ _____ _____ _____

black _____ _____ _____ _____

stuck _____ _____ _____ _____

track _____ _____ _____ _____

brick _____ _____ _____ _____

truck _____ _____ _____ _____

clock _____ _____ _____ _____

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pick duck clock pack luck stick black stuck

SPELLING THE SOUND /ck/

WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

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track brick truck sock lock clock muck slick

SPELLING THE SOUND /ck/

WORD CARDS FOR CONSONANT DIGRAPHS

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /er/ with er, ir, ur

her _____ _____

sir _____ _____

fur _____ _____

hurt _____ _____ _____

bird _____ _____ _____

third _____ _____ _____

under _____ _____ _____ _____

after _____ _____ _____ _____

burst _____ _____ _____ _____

thirst _____ _____ _____ _____

enter _____ _____ _____ _____

swirl _____ _____ _____ _____

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her sir fur hurt bird third under after

SPELLING THE SOUND /er/ with er, ir, ur

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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149

burst thirst enter swirl fern turn first shirt

SPELLING THE SOUND /er/ with er, ir, ur

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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150

SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /or/ with or, ore, oor

tore _____ _____

door _____ _____

wore _____ _____

shore _____ _____

corn _____ _____ _____

north _____ _____ _____

worn _____ _____ _____

store _____ _____ _____

fl oor _____ _____ _____

short _____ _____ _____

sort _____ _____ _____

snore _____ _____ _____

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worn corn tore wore door store north shore

SPELLING THE SOUND /or/ with or, ore, oor

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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152

floor short sort snort more torn score horn

SPELLING THE SOUND /or/ with or, ore, oor

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /ar/ with ar, are

are _____

jar _____ _____

art _____ _____

card _____ _____ _____

part _____ _____ _____

barn _____ _____ _____

yard _____ _____ _____

charm _____ _____ _____

star _____ _____ _____

scar _____ _____ _____

start _____ _____ _____ _____

snarl _____ _____ _____ _____

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are jar art card part barn yard charm

SPELLING THE SOUND /ar/ with ar, are

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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155

star scar start snarl farm scarf alarm aren’t

SPELLING THE SOUND /ar/ with ar, are

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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156

SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /ay/ with a–consonant–e, ai, ay

say _____ ______

may _____ ______

pay _____ ______

cape _____ _____ _____ e

rain _____ _____ _____

play _____ ______ _____

sail _____ ______ _____

made _____ _____ _____ e

late _____ _____ _____ e

wait _____ ______ _____

name _____ _____ _____ e

snail _____ _____ _____ _____

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cape rain pay play sail made late may

SPELLING THE SOUND /ay/ with a–consonant–e, ai, ay

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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158

snail wait say name clay tray Jane afraid

SPELLING THE SOUND /ay/ with a–consonant–e, ai, ay

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /ee/ with ee, ea, ie

see _____ _____

leaf _____ _____ _____

beat _____ ______ _____

feet _____ ______ _____

meat _____ ______ _____

thief _____ _____ _____

real _____ _____ _____

beach _____ ______ _____

green _____ _____ _____ ______

fi eld _____ ______ _____ _____

sleep _____ ______ _____ _____

sweet _____ _____ _____ _____

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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see leaf beat feet meat thief real beach

SPELLING THE SOUND /ee/ with ee, ea, ie

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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161

green field sleep sweet reach peach street greet

SPELLING THE SOUND /ee/ with ee, ea, ie

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /ie/ with i–consonant–e, igh, y

my _____ ______

by _____ ______

fi ve _____ _____ _____ e

fl y _____ _____ _____

right _____ ______ _____

life _____ _____ _____ e

ride _____ _____ _____ e

might _____ ______ _____

try _____ _____ _____

fi ght _____ ______ _____

slide _____ ______ _____ _____ e

fright _____ _____ _______ _____

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five fly right my by life ride might

SPELLING THE SOUND /ie/ with i–consonant–e, igh, y

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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164

try slide fight fright lime cry crime dime

SPELLING THE SOUND /ie/ with i–consonant–e, igh, y

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________©

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /oa/ with o–consonant–e, oa, ow

show _____ ______

home _____ _____ _____ e

boat _____ _____ _____

road _____ ______ _____

pole _____ ______ _____ e

slow _____ _____ _____

toad _____ _____ ______

blow _____ ______ _____

grow _____ _____ _____

groan _____ ______ _____ _____

close _____ ______ _____ _____ e

alone _____ _____ _____ ____ e

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home boat road show pole slow toad blow

SPELLING THE SOUND /oa/ with o–consonant–e, oa, ow

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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167

grow groan close alone flow glow float doze

SPELLING THE SOUND /oa/ with o–consonant–e, oa, ow

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /ue/ with u–consonant–e, ew, ue

use _____ _____e

few _____ _____

cue _____ _____

mew _____ _____

fuse _____ _____ _____e

amuse _____ _____ _____ _____e

rescue _____ _____ _____ _____ _____

refuse _____ _____ _____ _____ _____e

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use mew few fuse cue amuse rescue refuse

SPELLING THE SOUND /ue/ with u–consonant–e, ew, ue

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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170 A Sound Approach

SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /oo/ with oo, oul, u

put _____ _____ _____

look _____ _____ _____

good _____ _____ _____

wood _____ _____ _____

shook _____ _____ _____

cook _____ _____ _____

book _____ _____ _____

could _____ _____ _____

hook _____ _____ _____

would _____ _____ _____

should _____ _____ _____

stood _____ _____ _____ _____

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look good wood shook cook book could hook

SPELLING THE SOUND /oo/ (book) with oo, oul, u

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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would should stood put brook hood cook soot

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

SPELLING THE SOUND /oo/ (book) with oo, oul, u

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________©

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /ow/ with ow, ou, ough

cow _____ _____

now _____ _____

bough _____ _____

owl _____ _____

how _____ _____

out _____ _____

ouch _____ _____

shout _____ _____ _____

mouth _____ _____ _____

plough _____ _____ _____

brown _____ _____ _____ _____

growl _____ _____ _____ _____

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cow now owl how out ouch shout mouth

SPELLING THE SOUND /ow/ (cow) with ow, ou, ough

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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175

plough brown pout growl bough chow flower power

SPELLING THE SOUND /ow/ (cow) with ow, ou, ough

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /oi/ with oi, oy

oil _____ _____

boy _____ _____

toy _____ _____

joy _____ _____

soil _____ _____ _____

join _____ _____ _____

boil _____ _____ _____

point _____ _____ _____ _____

moist _____ _____ _____ _____

enjoy _____ _____ _____ _____

spoil _____ _____ _____ _____

oyster _____ _____ _____ _____

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oil boytoy joysoil joinboil point

SPELLING THE SOUND /oi/ with oi, oy

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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moist enjoy spoil oyster coin foil broil pointer

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

SPELLING THE SOUND /oi/ with oi, oy

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________©

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SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Vowel Digraph /oo/ with oo, ew, u–consonant–e

moon _____ _____ _____

fl ew _____ _____ _____

June _____ _____ _____ e

roof _____ _____ _____

soon _____ _____ _____

crew _____ _____ _____

tooth _____ _____ _____

stew _____ _____ _____

chute _____ _____ _____ e

fl ute _____ _____ _____ _____ e

broom _____ _____ _____ _____

stool _____ _____ _____ _____

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180

moon flew June root soon crew tooth chute

SPELLING THE SOUND /oo/(moon) with oo, ew, u–consonant–e

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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181

flute stew broom stool roof bloom blew chew

SPELLING THE SOUND /oo/ (moon) with oo, ew, u–consonant–e

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________

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182

SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Sound Chunk /air/ with air, are, ere

air _____

care _____ _____

bare _____ _____

there _____ _____

hair _____ _____

dare _____ _____

fair _____ _____

chair _____ _____

pair _____ _____

stair _____ _____ _____

spare _____ _____ _____

airport _____ _____ _____ _____

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183

air care bare there hair dare fair chair

SPELLING THE SOUND CHUNK /air/ with air, are, ere

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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184

pair airport stair spare share fare stare airway

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

SPELLING THE SOUND CHUNK /air/ with air, are, ere

Name ___________________________________________ Date ______________________©

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185

SPELLING-THE-SOUND SHEETThe Sound Chunk /ear/ with ear, eer, ier

ear _____

near _____ _____

deer _____ _____

cheer _____ _____

tear _____ _____

fear _____ _____

rear _____ _____

pier _____ _____

clear _____ _____ _____

steer _____ _____ _____

career _____ _____ _____ _____

dreary _____ _____ _____ _____

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186

SPELLING THE SOUND CHUNK /ear/ with ear, eer, ier

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

ear near deer cheer tear fear rear clear

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187

pier steer career dreary eerie hear dear jeer

SPELLING THE SOUND CHUNK /ear/ with ear, eer, ier

WORD CARDS FOR THE VOWEL DIGRAPHS

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188

SPEL

LING

-SOU

NDS

SORT

ING

MAT F

OR TH

E SOU

ND__

____

____

__

Nam

e __

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

____

_

D

ate

____

____

____

____

____

__

For Lessons 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5

Appendixes

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STORY STARTERS AND RIDDLES

AStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are walking through an orchard. There are trees all around. You take a deep breath and smell apples. You look up in the tree (point) and say, “There’s an a, a, apple.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the (short-vowel) sound /a/.”

I have a very sharp blade. I have a long, wooden handle. I am a tool used to chop down trees. What am I? (ax)

I am round. I am red. I am a fruit. What am I? (apple)

I am an insect. I am usually black or brown. I make and live in hills. What am I? (ant)

I fl y in a rocket. Some people call me a spaceman. What am I? (astronaut)

BStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are at the playground and you see a group of your friends. You run over to see them. One of your friends tosses a ball to you. You b, b, bounce the ball.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /b/.”

I am round. You can bounce me. You can catch me. What am I? (ball)

I have two beautiful wings. I was once a caterpillar. I am very colorful. What am I? (butterfl y)

Monkeys like to eat me. I am yellow. I am a fruit. What am I? (banana)

I fl oat in the water. People take rides in me. Sometimes I have a sail. What am I? (boat)

I have a beak. I like to chirp. I have two wings, and I fl y through the air. What am I? (bird)

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CStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are lying in bed feeling sick with a cold. Your mom comes into your room and asks how you are feeling. You try to say something, but all you can do is c, c, cough.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /c/.”

I spin a cocoon. I like to crawl along a tree branch. I turn into a butterfl y. What am I? (caterpillar)

I have a funny face. I have a big red nose. I like to make people laugh. What am I? (clown)

I like to meow. I like to drink milk. I am a pet. What am I? (cat)

I taste like peppermint. I have red and white stripes. I am shaped like a hook. What am I? (candy cane)

I am orange. I am a vegetable and grow under the ground. Rabbits like to eat me. What am I? (carrot)

DStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are putting on your bathing suit. You go outside to your pool and climb up to the top of the diving board. You put your arms over your head, lean over, and d, d, dive.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /d/.”

You knock on me or ring my bell. I am at the front of your house. You turn my knob to open me. What am I? (door)

I am a piece of clothing. Girls might wear me when they get dressed up. I can have buttons, zippers, or bows. What am I? (dress)

I am shaped like a cube. I have dots on each side. You use me to play games. What am I? (a pair of dice)

I am round, and I have a hole in the middle. You can eat me. I can have sprinkles or frosting. What am I? (doughnut)

My name is Brontosaurus. I am very, very, big. I lived long, long, ago. What am I? (dinosaur)

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EStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are in the wilds of Africa. Suddenly, the ground begins to shake as a giant animal walks toward you. You turn around and see your pet elephant, Ellie. Ellie is so happy to see you that she waves her trunk (students swing arms in front of their bodies) and says, e, e, elephant.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the (short-vowel) sound /e/.”

I am part of your arm. You can bend me. Sometimes I am called the “funny bone.” What am I? (elbow)

I am a large, gray animal. I have big, fl oppy ears. I have a long, gray trunk. What am I? (elephant)

I am a box to ride in if you don’t want to walk up or down the stairs. I have big doors that open and close. You can press my buttons. What am I? (elevator)

I am small, round, and white. You can crack me open and scramble me. Hens lay me. What am I? (egg)

FStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine it is a very hot day. You are so hot, you need something to cool you off. You open your drawer and fi nd a piece of paper. You fold it forwards and backwards and make a f, f, fan.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /f/.”

I cover a bird’s body. I keep birds warm. I can tickle you. What am I? (feather)

I live in a pond. I am green. I like to hop on lily pads. What am I? (frog)

I swim in the water. I have a tail and fi ns. Sometimes I am gold. What am I? (fi sh)

I grow in your garden. I have a beautiful smell. You can pick me and put me in a vase. What am I? (fl ower)

I sit on the table with a knife and spoon. You use me to eat cake. I am shiny and silver. What am I? (fork)

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GStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are getting ready to ride Goldie. You put on your riding pants, helmet, and your riding boots. You go out to the stable, and say, ‘Good morning, Goldie.’ You put the saddle on Goldie, put one foot in the stirrup and swing over your other leg. You go for a g, g, gallop on Goldie.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /g/.”

Some people wear me so that they can see better. I have round or square frames. I am made out of glass or plastic. What am I? (glasses)

I am fruit. I can be green, red, or purple. I grow in clusters. I am small and round. What am I? (grapes)

I am an animal that you might see at the zoo. I come from the forests of Africa. I look like a big monkey. What am I? (gorilla)

I cover your fi ngers. You wear me in the winter. I keep your hands warm. What am I? (gloves)

I am green. You can have a picnic on me. I am cut with a lawnmower. What am I? (grass)

HStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine your friend called you. You pick up the phone and your friend says, ‘Why did the hippo cross the road? Because he wanted to hop to the other side.’ You put your hand in front of your mouth and say, h, h, h.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /h/.”

People live inside me. I have windows and doors. I have bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen. What am I? (house)

I am red. You think of “love” when you see me. What am I? (heart)

You use me to put nails into wood. I make a loud noise when you use me.I am found in a toolbox. What am I? (hammer)

I have fi ve fi ngers. You use me to pick up cookies. You use me to print your name. What am I? (hand)

I am long and shaped like a tube. Water comes out of my nozzle. I am used to water the grass. What am I? (hose)

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IStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you wake up one morning and look in the mirror. You have red spots all over your body. Oh no! You have the chicken pox. You i, i, itch all over.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the (short-vowel) sound /i/.”

I am black or blue. I am found inside a pen. I make the marks on a paper. What am I? (ink)

I am another name for bug. I have six legs. I can crawl or fl y. What am I? (insect)

I am a house. I am made out of ice blocks. I am round and white. What am I? (igloo)

I am a reptile. I am green with a long tail. I am a large lizard. What am I? (iguana)

JStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are in the gym. Your teacher leads the exercises. You touch your toes ten times and run on the spot. You j, j, jump up and down.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /j/.”

I am a sea animal. I have long tentacles. I am clear and look like jelly. What am I? (jellyfi sh)

I am a toy. I live in a box. You wind me up and I will pop out and surprise you. What am I? (jack-in-the-box)

I may be made out of gold or silver. I can be earrings or necklaces or rings. What am I? (jewelry)

I have a pouring spout and a handle. You can keep apple juice in me. I rhyme with mug. What am I? (jug)

I have a lid. I am made out of glass. You can keep mayonnaise, mustard, or insects in me. What am I? (jar)

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KStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are at karate school. You put on your black belt and get ready to practice. You put your hands in front of you and k, k, karate chop.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /k/.”

I am an animal. My baby lives in my pouch and his name is Joey. I like to hop. What am I? (kangaroo)

I am a man. I wear a crown. I rule a country. What am I? (king)

I lock a door. I am found on a small chain. You fi t me into a keyhole. What am I? (key)

I am made out of paper, string, and a wood frame. On a windy day I fl y high in the sky. I rhyme with night. What am I? (kite)

I am a baby cat. I like to lick my paws. I like to purr. What am I? (kitten)

LStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are going for a ride in the car. As you pass by a store, you point and ask your dad if you may go to the store. You go inside, buy a lollipop, and l, l, lick it.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /l/.”

I am part of your doorknob. You need a key to use me. I keep your home safe. I rhyme with sock. What am I? (lock)

I am an insect. I am red with black dots. I will fl y away if you touch me. What am I? (ladybug)

You put a light bulb in me. I light up a room. I wear a shade. What am I? (lamp)

You climb up me. I lean against the side of your house when you use me. I have rungs. What am I? (ladder)

You fi nd me on a tree. I am green, but I can turn red. Sometimes I fall off the tree in the autumn. What am I? (leaf)

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MStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you live on a farm. You get up early one day. You get ready and go out to the barn. You fi nd your stool and bucket and sit down to m, m, milk Mabel.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /m/.”

I hold the mail. People put birthday cards and letters in me when they want to mail them to their family and friends. What am I? (mailbox)

I am a small gray animal. I like to eat cheese. I don’t like to get caught in a trap. What am I? (mouse)

I am used to dust the fl oor. I have a long handle. I rhyme with hop. What am I? (mop)

I cover your hands. I keep them warm. I am made out of wool. What am I? (mittens)

I might be round or crescent-shaped. I shine in the night sky. I rhyme with soon. What am I? (moon)

NStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are sitting at the dinner table. Your mom passes you some of your favorite noodles. You spoon out a big helping. Your sister passes you some spinach. You tell her, ‘N,n, no thank you!’”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /n/.”

I am made out of steel. I need a hammer to put me into wood. I keep pieces of wood together. What am I? (nail)

Your mom and dad like to read me every day. I have large pages. I am black and white. What am I? (newspaper)

Sometimes fi sh get caught in me. I have a long pole. You also use me to catch butterfl ies. What am I? (net)

I have a shell. You have to crack me open to eat me. Squirrels like to store me away for the winter. What am I? (nut)

I am long, thin, and sharp. You use me to sew clothes. You put a piece of thread through my eye. What am I? (needle)

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OStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are going for a swim. You put on your face mask, fl ippers, and oxygen tank. You dive under the water and see an o, o, octopus waving its tentacles.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the (short-vowel) sound /o/.”

I am a bird, but I cannot fl y. I have a very long neck. I bury my head in the sand when I am scared. What am I? (ostrich)

I am an animal with shiny, sleek fur. I love to swim and play. I rhyme with hotter. What am I?

I live underwater. I have eight legs. I spray ink when I am in danger. What am I? (octopus)

PStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are going to a movie and you buy your ticket. You go to the snack bar and you watch the popcorn machine making p, p, popcorn.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /p/.”

I am a piece of fruit. I am yellow or green. I rhyme with bear. What am I? (pear)

I am circular. I have pepperoni and cheese on me. You can eat me for dinner. What am I? (pizza)

I am a farm animal. I am pink. I like to say, “oink, oink.” What am I? (pig)

You use me for writing. You can rub out my marks with an eraser. What am I? (pencil)

I am made out of pastry. I can be fi lled with fruit such as apple or cherry. I bake in the oven. What am I? (pie)

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QStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are holding your new baby brother in your arms and you rock the baby to sleep. Just then, Mom comes into the room and you say, ’The baby is asleep. Please be q, q, quiet.’”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with kw.”

I am a blanket. I am made out of different pieces of material sewn together. I rhyme with built. What am I? (quilt)

I am a bird. I am related to partridges. I rhyme with whale. What am I? (quail)

I am a woman. I wear a crown. I rule a country. What am I? (queen)

I am shaped like a backward S with a dot at the bottom. When you are reading a book I tell you when there is a question. What am I? (question mark)

RStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are visiting the zoo. You walk by the biggest cage. You point to the lion and say, ‘Hey look, there’s R, R, Rori.’”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /r/.”

You fi nd me in the sky. I come out after it rains. I have many bright colors. What am I? (rainbow)

You wear me around your fi nger. I am a piece of jewelry. I can be made out of silver or gold. What am I? (ring)

You can call me a bunny. I like to eat carrots and lettuce. I like to hop around. What am I? (rabbit)

You use me to gather your leaves in a pile. I live in the garage. I have a long handle. What am I? (rake)

Babies like to shake me. I have a plastic handle. I make a noise when you move me. What am I? (rattle)

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SStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you have a pet snake named Sammy. You go up to your room and notice that the snake is missing. You look under the chair. No Sammy. You look in the closet. No Sammy. Then you hear, Ssss. You look under your bed, and there is S, S, Sammy.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /s/.”

You wear me on your feet. You cover me with shoes or boots. I keep your feet warm. What am I? (socks)

I twinkle, twinkle in the night sky. You can make a wish on me. I rhyme with far. What am I?

I sit on the table next to a knife and a fork. You use me to eat soup. I am shiny and silver. What am I? (spoon)

I have eight legs. I spin a web. I like to catch and eat fl ies. What am I? (spider)

I am a ball of fi re and gas. I shine brightly in the sky. Plants and animals need me to grow. What am I? (sun)

TStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are playing baseball in the backyard. You accidentally hit the ball near your dog Tex. Tex is sleeping so you t, t, tiptoe past Tex to get the ball.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /t/.

I am a very tall plant. I have leaves, bark, and branches. You can sit under me for shade. What am I? (tree)

I am a number. I come after the number one. I rhyme with glue. What am I? (two)

I am a small machine. You can dial numbers on me. You can talk into my mouthpiece. What am I? (telephone)

I have four or more wheels. I carry big loads. Sometimes I carry garbage. What am I? (truck)

I am a shape. I have three straight sides. A slice of pizza is shaped like me. What am I? (triangle)

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UStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are snorkeling in the water. You swim along a beautiful coral reef. You see a school of fi sh, so you swim u, u, under the water. Then you swim back u, u, up to get a breath of air.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the (short-vowel) sound /u/.”

You wear me under blue jeans or a dress. You put on a clean pair every morning. What am I? (underwear)

You need me for a rainy day. I keep you dry. You open me up and hold me over your head. What am I? (umbrella)

If you want to go scuba diving, you must swim in me. You dive into me. What am I? (underwater)

VStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are eating some popcorn. You accidentally spill it all over the carpet. You get the vacuum out of the closet, and v, v, vacuum the carpet.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /v/.”

I am a musical instrument. I look like a little guitar. You hold one end of me under your chin. What am I? (violin)

My special day is February 14th. I am shaped like a heart. I am pink or red. What am I? (valentine)

I am a container that holds water. You put fl owers in me. I am made out of glass or pottery. What am I? (vase)

Sometimes I blow my top off. Hot, red lava pours out of me. What am I? (volcano)

I am a machine that you use to pick up the dirt from a carpet or rug. I make a noise when you turn me on. You push my handle to make me move. What am I? (vacuum cleaner)

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WStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are watching a parade. A clown walks by and you wave. A funny car drives by and you wave. People in the marching band walk by and you w, w, wave to them.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /w/.”

You wear me on your wrist. I can tell you the time. There are numerals on my face. What am I? (watch)

I am the largest mammal in the world. I live in the ocean. I blow water out of my blow hole. What am I? (whale)

I look like a big seal. I have two white tusks. I live in the snow and ice. What am I? (walrus)

I have four wheels and a handle. You can put your teddy bears in me and give them a ride. Sometimes your mom or dad can give you a ride in me. What am I? (wagon)

I live in your garden. I like to crawl around in dirt. If you pick me up, I wiggle. What am I? (worm)

XStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you are climbing up to your tree house. There’s a sign on the door that says Clubhouse. You knock on the door. Your friend opens the door and says, ‘What is the password?’ You make an X with your arms and say ks, ks, ks.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that has a ks in it.”

You use me to chop wood. I have a wooden handle. I have a very sharp blade. What am I? (ax)

I am a number. I come after the number fi ve. What am I? (six)

I am shaped like a cube. You can put things in me. I am made out of cardboard. What am I? (box)

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YStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you have just come home from school. You open the door, hang up your backpack, and smell freshly baked cookies. You follow the smell to the kitchen where you fi nd your dad putting cookies in the cookie jar. Your dad asks if you would like a cookie. You nod your head, y, y, yes, and reach for a cookie.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /y/.”

I am an animal. I have two horns. I rhyme with pack. What am I? (yak)

I am made out of wool. I look like string rolled up in a ball. You use me to knit sweaters. I rhyme with barn. What am I? (yarn)

When you are tired, you do this. Your mouth opens very wide. I rhyme with dawn. What am I? (yawn)

I am yellow. I am on the inside of an egg. You see me when you crack open my shell. What am I? (yolk)

I am a toy. I have a long piece of string tied around a round, wooden shape. You try to make me move up and down with the string. What am I? (yo-yo)

ZStory starter: Say to the students, “Imagine you have just fi nished your breakfast, and you run outside to play. Suddenly, a big gust of wind blows, and you shiver. You run back into the house for your jacket, put it on, and z, z, zip it up.”

Riddle: Say to the students, “I’m thinking of a word that begins with the sound /z/.”

I am a vegetable. I am green. I look like a cucumber. What am I? (zucchini)

I am a wild animal. I look like a horse, but I have black and white stripes. Sometimes you see me at the zoo. What am I? (zebra)

I am a line that moves from side to side and up and down. What am I? (zigzag)

You use me to do up your coat. You use me to do up your jeans. You can move me up and down. What am I? (zipper)

I am a number. I come before the number one. I am shaped like an oval. What am I? (zero)

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Pret

end

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ball,

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/b/

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Cov

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our m

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and

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to c

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Pret

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by p

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Swin

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and

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’s tr

unk,

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Wav

e yo

ur h

and

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a fa

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say

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the

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Pret

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allo

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Gol

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whi

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Pret

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put

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your

han

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your

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hile

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ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

Chapter 4: Lesson Plans 211

Pret

end

to s

crat

ch a

ll ov

er y

our b

ody,

whi

le s

ayin

g th

e (s

hort

vow

el) s

ound

/i/

, /i/

, /i/

.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

212

Jum

p up

and

dow

n, w

hile

say

ing

the

soun

d /j

/, /

j/, /

j/.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

213

Pret

end

to g

ive

a ka

rate

cho

p, w

hile

say

ing

the

soun

d /k

/, /

k/, /

k/.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

214

Pret

end

to li

ck a

lolli

pop,

whi

le s

ayin

g th

e so

und

/l/,

/l/

, /l/

.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

215

Pret

end

to m

ilk M

abel

, whi

le s

ayin

g th

e so

und,

/m

/, /

m/,

/m

/.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

216

Shak

e yo

ur h

ead

“no,

” w

hile

say

ing

the

soun

d /n

/, /

n/, /

n/.

no!

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

217

Wav

e yo

ur a

rms

like

the

tent

acle

s of

an

octo

pus,

whi

le

sayi

ng th

e (s

hort

vow

el) s

ound

/o/

, /o/

, /o/

.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

218

Pret

end

to p

op u

p an

d do

wn

like

popc

orn,

whi

le s

ayin

g th

e so

und

/p/,

/p/

, /p/

.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

219

Put y

our fi

nge

r to

your

lips

and

in a

ui

et v

oice

say

the

soun

d /

/, /

/, /

/.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

220

Pret

end

to ro

ar li

ke R

ori,

whi

le m

akin

g th

e so

und

/r/,

/r/

, /r/

.

Rorie

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

221

Wav

e yo

ur h

ands

in th

e ai

r lik

e a

snak

e, w

hile

say

ing

the

soun

d /s

/, /

s/, /

s/.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

222

Tipt

oe a

roun

d th

e ro

om, w

hile

say

ing

the

soun

d /t

/, /

t/, /

t/.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

223

Pret

end

to s

wim

und

er th

e w

ater

, whi

le s

ayin

g th

e (s

hort

vow

el) s

ound

/u/

, /u/

, /u/

.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

224

Pret

end

to v

acuu

m th

e ca

rpet

, whi

le s

ayin

g th

e so

und

/v/,

/v/

, /v/

.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

225

Pret

end

to w

ave

to th

e pe

ople

in th

e pa

rade

, whi

le s

ayin

g th

e so

und

/w/,

/w

/, /

w/.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

226

Mak

e la

rge

Xs in

the

air b

y cr

ossin

g yo

ur a

rms,

whi

le s

ayin

g th

e so

und

/x/,

/x/

, /x/

(ks,

ks,

ks)

.

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

227

Nod

you

r hea

d “y

es,”

whi

le s

ayin

g th

e so

und

/y/,

/y/

, /y/

.

yes

cook

ies

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

228

Pret

end

to z

ip u

p a

zipp

er, w

hile

mak

ing

the

soun

d /z

/, /

z/, /

z/.

z z

z z

z

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

229

SsA

aTt

PpH

hIi

Nn

Dd

EeLl

Gg

BbO

oM

mRr

Cc

FfU

uJj

Yy

Vv

Ww

XxZz

For Lessons 1.1 to 1.6

VISU

AL S

TRIP

S FO

R SO

UND

GROU

PS A

, B, C

, D, A

ND E

© P

orta

ge &

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n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

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uce

d fo

r cl

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oom

use

.

230

Aa

EeIi

Oo

Uu

Aa

EeIi

Oo

Uu

Aa

EeIi

Oo

Uu

Aa

EeIi

Oo

Uu

Aa

EeIi

Oo

Uu

VISU

AL S

TRIP

S FO

R SH

ORT-V

OWEL

SOU

NDS

For Lessons 1.1 to 1.6

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

231

ax apple

ant astronaut

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /a/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /a/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

232

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /b/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /b/

boat bird

ball banana

butterfl y

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

233

cat

carrotcandy cane

caterpillar

clown

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /c/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /c/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

234

dice

dress

door

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /d/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /d/

dinosaurdoughnut

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

235

elevator

elephantelbow

egg

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /e/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /e/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

236

frog

forkfl ower

fi shfeather

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /f/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /f/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

237

grapes

gorilla

gloves

glasses

grass

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /g/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /g/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

238

heart

hand

hammerhouse

hose

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /h/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /h/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

239

insectink

igloo iguana

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /i/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /i/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

240

jar

jack-in-the-box

jug

jewelryjellyfi sh

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /j/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /j/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

241

kittenkite

king

keykangaroo

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /k/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /k/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

242

leaf

lamp

ladybug

ladder

lock

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /l/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /l/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

243

moonmittens

mop

mouse

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /m/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /m/

mailbox

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

244

nuts

nail net

needle

newspaper

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /n/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /n/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

245

otter

ostrich octopus

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /o/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /o/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

246

pizza

pig

pie

pear

pencil

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /p/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /p/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

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use

.

247

uilt

uestionueen

uail

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND / /

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND / /

© P

orta

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Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

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oom

use

.

248

ring

rattlerake

rainbow rabbit

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /r/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /r/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

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oom

use

.

249

star

spoon

spider

socks

sun

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /s/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /s/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

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use

.

250

triangle

tree telephone

truck

two

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /t/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /t/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

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prod

uce

d fo

r cl

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use

.

251

underwater

umbrella

underwear

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /u/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /u/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

assr

oom

use

.

252

vase

valentine

vacuumvolcano

violin

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /v/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /v/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

e re

prod

uce

d fo

r cl

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use

.

253

worm

whale

watch walrus

wagon

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /w/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /w/

© P

orta

ge &

Mai

n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

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prod

uce

d fo

r cl

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use

.

254

six

boxax

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /x/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /x/

© P

orta

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n P

ress

200

7. M

ay b

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prod

uce

d fo

r cl

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use

.

255

yo-yo

yawn

yarn

yak

yolk

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /y/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /y/

© P

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ge &

Mai

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ress

200

7. M

ay b

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prod

uce

d fo

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.

256

zigzag

zero

zebra

zucchini

zipper

PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /z/

WORDS-AND-PICTURES PAGE FOR THE SOUND /z/

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